Patient Advocacy & Satisfaction

Patient Advocacy & Satisfaction

For questions or concerns contact our Patient & Family Help Line at (970) 477-5222,  Monday-Friday 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM.

At Vail Health and Shaw Cancer Center, patients and their families play an integral role in their health care experiences. We welcome and encourage patients and families to ask questions, be active communicators and give us feedback along the way. Vail Health Hospital offers free translation and/or interpretation services to patients and families. 

Ways to give us feedback

We provide several opportunities for our guests to give us feedback.
 
At any time during your experience, please speak with your nurse or direct caregiver to share questions or concerns. We encourage you to be open and honest. Should you feel the need for further support, please ask to speak to a charge nurse or nurse supervisor.
 
At Vail Health, we are continuously striving to find ways to improve the services we provide to our patients and their families. Feedback whether it be positive or negative is appreciated so we can continue to provide superior services with compassion and exceptional outcomes.
 
  • General Questions: Submit a question, comment, compliment online here.
  • Billing Feedback/Questions:  Issues that are purely related to billing and have no quality of care component are addressed by Vail Health’s Patient Financial Services team. The Patient Financial Services team may be contacted at (970) 777-2850.
  • Patient and Family Helpline: An additional resource that is available Monday-Friday 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM with the exception of all major holiday’s. Please call (970) 477-5222 to reach a patient representative, in the instance a representative is not available please leave a message and your call will be returned promptly.
  • Through our surveys: After you return home, you may be randomly selected to receive a patient satisfaction survey administered on our behalf by Press Ganey, a third-party patient satisfaction surveyor. We encourage you to take the time to complete the survey and let us know what went well and how we can improve.
  • Want to provide anonymous feedback: Comment cards are located at the information desks at Vail Health Hospital and Shaw Cancer Center.  Please feel free to take a minute to share your thoughts, recognize a staff member that made your experience memorable or give us suggestions on how to improve.
  • Our Patient Advocate is here to help you: Patients are strongly encouraged to raise any concerns about their care experience with their care team at their time of service so that issues and concerns may be addressed and resolved as quickly as possible. In the event a patient is unable to do so or feels uncomfortable advocating for themselves, Vail Health’s Patient Advocate is available to provide assistance. 

    What does a Patient Advocate do?
    • Serves as a liaison between patients, families, hospital and medical staff
    • Serves as point of contact for organization-wide complaints and grievances
    • Provides feedback from the patient to the organization to continually improve the patient experience
    • At any time during or after your visit, if you feel we have not met your needs or answered your questions, you have the right to file a formal complaint with us without fear of retribution or impact toward your care. Please read our Patient Rights and Responsibilities (pdf) for more information. Derechos Del Paciente (pdf).
  • At Vail Health Hospital, we pride ourselves on the care and service we deliver to our patients. We invite you to review our patient satisfaction scores as monitored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, as well as Press Ganey.

Making Difficult Decisions

Our Ethics Resource Committee is available for patients and caregivers who may be struggling with a difficult decision involving healthcare. The committee is comprised of individuals who are trained to facilitate and guide discussion. The committee does not make medical decisions, but listens and responds to patients, staff, physicians and caregivers to help clarify issues and explore options and possible outcomes. To reach the Ethics Resource Committee, please ask your nurse to request an ethics consultation on your behalf.

Hospice Care

Hospice & Home Care of the Valley provides care to individuals who are diagnosed with a life-limiting illness who have a prognosis of six months or less to live. Visit their website at http://hchotv.org/.