MedWatch- CCMH welcomes patient feedback through the Patient Family Advisory Committee from Medwatch 7 KSWO on Vimeo.

LAWTON, OK (KSWO)- When it comes to service, Comanche County Memorial Hospital wants to provide the best. And the best way to know how they are doing is feedback from patients. Which is the reason why they have the Patient Family Advisory Committee.

The members of the Committee are former patients, loved ones, and hospital staff. They meet once every month to discuss ways to improve the patients stay at the hospital.

“This committee gives us a different viewpoint that sometimes we’re missing. It reminds us again to look at the patient’s perspective in everything we do. Sometimes they bring us back to reality.”

Heather Love is the Customer Service Risk Manager for the hospital. She says they also help with projects around the hospital, by providing patient input. Love says one of the bigger projects that have truly benefited from the council has been the patient guide booklet.

“Our patient guide is a booklet that every patient gets. That goes through all of the requirements of what we’re required to give to our patients upon admission.”

“We would make suggestions, the hospital would come back with other suggestions, and we just worked it.” Cherry Phillips is a former patient, and one of the members of the committee. She says it’s nice to know that the hospital staff wants to know what the patients think. “There’s a big willingness on the hospital’s part to change where they need to change and expand where they need to expand. They really are listening. And we are too.”

While not every patient can be on the committee, there are other ways to provide feedback. After a patient is discharged from the hospital, Love says they may receive a survey in the mail asking for their opinion on their stay.

“We do value those surveys and we ask that people fill those surveys out. Because that is our opportunity to make improvements in how we provide for our patients and our family members. We honestly like to see the good comments, and we learn from the bad ones. It gives us the opportunity to make that improvement so that bad experience might not happen again to somebody else.”

There are several openings on the council right now. To become a member, you or a loved one must have been a patient. Then, all you have to do is call the hospital at 580-355-8620 and ask for extension 5485 to reach Heather Love. She’ll then have you fill out an application.

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