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Community
survey shows
rising scores for
Simi Valley Hospital
The community’s positive opinion of Simi
Valley Hospital has made excellent progress
over the past three years, according to
the recently announced results of a 2013
consumer perception study.
Among the 400 area residents who
took part in the telephone survey late last
summer, 21.5 percent said their impression
of Simi Valley Hospital was excellent and
29.1 percent said they had a very good
impression of the hospital. Both of those
scores were signi cantly higher than the
scores in the last survey, conducted in 2010.
“To have nearly 51 percent of
community consumers rank us as excellent
or very good is particularly signi cant when
you consider that these are not necessarily
former patients, who would have had the
advantage of seeing the hospital’s quality
rsthand,” said Michelle Foster, who was in
charge of the survey as the director of the
hospital’s Marketing Department before
being named the Simi Valley Hospital
Foundation President earlier this year. “It
is a survey of the community at large, so
the changes we make in the hospital aren’t
re ected as quickly as they are with surveys
of former patients. This shows that the
positive changes at Simi Valley Hospital are
disseminating throughout the community
very rapidly.”
The quick increase in positive scores
took even PRC, the company that handles
surveys for Simi Valley Hospital, by surprise.
“It’s interesting to note that PRC—
which conducts thousands of surveys
every year all around the country—was
very impressed by the results of this
latest survey,” said KimMilstien, Simi
Valley Hospital president and CEO. “They
told us they would never have expected
such a large jump in scores over a
three-year period.”
The good news surrounding the
2013 consumer perception study
extends beyond the overall impression of
the hospital.
“Simi Valley Hospital made progress in
every category of the survey,” Foster said.
“Whether it was related to quality of care,
patient experience, caregivers—our results
were better than in 2010.”
When survey respondents were asked
to name an area hospital off the top of
their heads, Simi Valley Hospital was
overwhelmingly the rst response—nearly
50 percent, versus almost 27 percent for the
next-most-often-named hospital. Just over
32 percent called Simi Valley Hospital their
preferred hospital, again more than any
other area hospital.
“The great news we’re seeing from this
survey is a result of the compassionate care,
clinical expertise and outstanding customer
service our patients and families receive
every day here at Simi Valley Hospital,
combined with the educational outreach
and support we’re providing directly in
our community,”Milstien said. “The credit
goes to our employees, physicians and
volunteers; without their commitment to
quality and patient focus, these results
would never be possible.”
An exercise in
philanthropy
What began as a team-building exercise
for Simi Valley Hospital’s leadership team
during a retreat in May turned into an
even more meaningful life moment when
a surprise was revealed at the end of
their assignment.
After forming groups of three or four,
most of the team members donned
blindfolds and—under the instruction of a
non-blindfolded team member who could
provide only verbal commands—they
assembled bicycles from scratch.
As the teams removed their blindfolds
to see the results of their collaboration,
they discovered more than just a group of
fully assembled bicycles: Beyond
them were 10 children from the Simi
Valley Boys and Girls Club, who were
waiting anxiously to get hold of their
new bikes.
“Needless to say, there were tears of
joy from both the leadership team and
the kids in that moment, and we were all
proud to be part of Simi Valley Hospital,”
said Simi Valley Hospital Marketing
Director Steve Sojka.
Simi Valley Hospital’s leadership team and the excited kids from the Simi Valley Boys and Girls Club with their new bikes.
