Sioux Falls VA Health Care System Receives Award For Most Improved In Outpatient Experience
The Sioux Falls VA Health Care System on Wednesday received the Most Improved in Outpatient Experience Award for fiscal year 2021 at the VA’s Patient Experience Symposium in Washington D.C.
Dr. Pendergrass, Acting Director, received the award on behalf of the SFVAHCS by Dr. Shereef Elnahal, Under Secretary for Health for the Department of Veteran Affairs.
“This award recognizes everyone’s effort over the course of a year to improve the experience for our patients,” said Dr. Donna Jark, Acting Chief of Staff. “I am very proud of the work done by the entire care team.”
The award recognizes the SFVAHCS for having the most improved patient satisfaction scores across the Veterans Health Administration’s primary care outpatient clinics during the 2021 fiscal year. Sioux Falls had an improvement from 72.6% to 83.5%, an increase of 10.9%.
The dedication and drive of the staff in Sioux Falls, the outreach clinic in Wagner, and each of the VA community based outpatient clinics in Aberdeen, Watertown, Dakota Dunes, and Spirit Lake, are credited for taking the feedback to heart and acting upon it, said Dr. Jark.
Feedback from Veterans through surveys in overall satisfaction, a rating of the provider, the effectiveness of care coordination, and communication with the patient are some of the areas collected to determine the results for the award.
“This award is a recognition of the work by the entire outpatient care team to improve the ease and effectiveness for Veterans at each interaction with the Sioux Falls VA Health Care System,” said Damian Donahoe, Supervisory Health Systems Specialist, Patient Experience Officer. “They each try to provide exceptional service to Veterans and the team acted upon feedback from the Veterans to make small, but impactful changes to improve the overall experience.”
The Customer Experience Symposium is a two-day, hybrid virtual learning event to equip Veteran Health Administration leaders and frontline staff with tools to improve the care experiences of our
Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors. Participants will discover new and existing tools and best practices to mature and sustain patient experience programs.