Ep 4 Show Notes

The chaplains discuss "patient satisfaction scores" in this episode and wonder whether they existed in 1994 when ER began. They didn't, at least not nationally. The standardized national measure of patient satisfaction, for the past ten years or so, is the HCAHPS Survey.

Carrie mentions Epic, which is the electronic healthcare records software that many hospitals in the US now use. You can read more about Epic here.

Stacy says that she was worried about the psychiatrist, Dr. Div Cvetic, featured in these episodes because he showed signs of compassion fatigue pointing towards burnout. If you're wondering about what to look for, or think you may be at risk for burnout yourself, here is a free burnout self-assessment tool that could be helpful. At the end of the test, you'll also find a link for the more rigorous Maslach Burnout Inventory (which must be purchased).

There is a good conversation in this episode about how to quantify the value of what chaplains do. It's very difficult to give numbers and hard data that hospital administrations are often looking for that show the value of spiritual care. HealthCare Chaplaincy Network has this list of suggested spiritual care quality indicators and ways to measure them. For a less technical and more narrative approach to the question, see Stacy's blog post, The Case for Chaplaincy. If you're a chaplain, let us know how your hospital or healthcare organization measures what you do!