“High-performing hospitals maintain strong links to both employees and patients. We believe that positioning Mayo as both the employer of choice and healthcare provider of choice for the Penquis region is an important priority and a means to strengthen our performance.

“To measure our progress toward those related goals, Mayo continues to contract with Avatar International, Inc., a Florida-based company that specializes in improving service. Avatar conducts employee and patient satisfaction surveys for our hospital, and Mayo uses the survey data as the basis for process improvement efforts -- promoting both the continuous improvement of patient care and the work environment for our employees.

“I am proud to report that recent results from Avatar surveys again place Mayo Regional Hospital at the highest echelon of both patient and employee satisfaction for hospitals throughout the United States:

• Patient satisfaction. Avatar continuously surveys randomly selected patients at Mayo in three major areas: Inpatient admissions, Emergency Department visits and physician office visits. Overall results for Mayo’s 2004 fiscal year, including over 75,000 survey item responses, show Inpatient scores of 94.02 and Emergency Department scores of 89.52. Compared against Avatar’s national database of over 160 hospitals, Mayo ranks 9th in Inpatient satisfaction and 20th in Emergency Department satisfaction.

• Employee satisfaction. An Avatar opinion survey of Mayo employees in November, 2004, measured 18 outcome areas designed to reveal employee perceptions on virtually every aspect of work at our hospital. Our employees identified all 18 outcome areas as Mayo ‘strengths.’ These survey results are exceptional when compared to other hospitals in Avatar’s national database. Avatar ranked Mayo’s employee survey results as the best it has seen in the past two years -- #1 in the nation.

“We at Mayo are delighted with these outstanding results, which continue to improve upon already impressive rankings. Healthcare, by its very nature, requires continuous efforts at improving care. Our pledge to our patients, and our staff, is that improving upon past efforts will remain a key priority.”