The North Tower building at Memorial Hospital nears completion on June 5, 2014. CHI Memorial Hospital Chattanooga was recognized Monday at the 2018 NRC Health Symposium in San Diego, California, for earning the No. 1 ranking on NRC Health's inaugural consumer loyalty list.
NRC Health, a health care solutions firm, based the rankings of its Market Insights study on an online poll that measures the opinions, behaviors and profiles of approximately 310,000 consumers nationwide, making it the largest online health care consumer-perception survey in the United States.
To be considered in the rankings, hospitals had to receive at least 150 "Top of Mind" mentions in the survey, meaning a respondent named it their preferred hospital. Nearly 500 hospitals were then ranked based on how consumers scored the hospital in seven categories such as reputation, accessibility and overall experience and CHI Memorial in Chattanooga was rated the best.
Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 3/31/16. CEO of CHI Memorial Hospital Dr. Larry Schumacher speaks about his new position at the Chattanooga hospital on Thursday, March 31, 2016. Brian Wynne, vice president and general manager at NRC Health, said in a statement that the survey shows hospitals must prioritize a consumer-centered approach to care in order to cultivate and maintain loyalty as health care in the U.S. moves toward a value-based model.
"This list brings to light over 100 case examples of organizations leading the charge in designing for consumer loyalty," Wynne said. "For those hospitals and health systems that didn't make the list, these findings help reveal opportunities to improve customer loyalty and create lifelong relationships with patients that will be critical to future organizational success."
Other hospitals in Tennessee that made the top 100 include Methodist Le Bonheur Germantown Hospital in Germantown, University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Methodist University Hospital in Memphis and Jackson-Madison County General Hospital in Jackson.
Larry Schumacher, CEO of CHI Memorial, said the hospital's network of physicians combined with opportunities for consumers to interact with medicals professionals outside the traditional health care setting, contributed to the high ranking.
"We have a robust patient experience program that sets expectations for how we will interact with patients and family members, with services to help navigate patients throughout their experience," Schumacher said in an email. "In 2017, we created Vision 2020, a people-centered strategic journey for the future of our organization. Through that work, we recognized that building loyalty to our brand requires us to think of people as much more than patients."