Patient Satisfied Over the Years
Recent VGH Patient Satisfaction Scores Reflect a Local Patients Experience

Monroe, WA – A Monroe resident since 1949, Darlene Helm has seen a few changes in this community over the years. The kind of medical care a resident can receive at their community hospital is one of them.

“You could call me a satisfied customer,” stated Helm with a smile. Over the past decade, Darlene has slowing been moving her medical care closer to where she lives and has been encouraging her family and friends to do the same. “I am close to my community and I like the idea of supporting my community physicians.”

Darlene grew up in Seattle and has been a patient at many of the area hospitals, including hospitals in Seattle, Bellevue and Everett. “I would go to our community hospital (Valley General Hospital) before I would go anywhere else. It’s not that I had bad experiences at other hospitals, but why would I go somewhere else when I can receive great care and convenience.”

What Darlene has noticed is Valley General Hospital has been meeting the demands and needs for certain services and specialty physicians in this area. “The hospital is bringing access to specialty physicians,” stated Helm. “They are bringing the medical care to us. We no longer have to travel the distance.”

Residents can expect to see the medical services offered in Monroe to continue to grow. An example of this is the opening of the, physician owned, medical office building on the campus of Valley General Hospital, Sky River Medical Center. Helm is a patient of three different physicians in the medical center, Diane Doerner, MD, Sky River Internal Medicine (a Valley General Hospital clinic), Michael Eickerman, MD, Monroe General Surgery and Charles Strub, MD, Puget Sound Vein Center.

“You get the feeling when you walk through the door at Valley General Hospital, that each person working there is committed to giving you good care no matter what, from the doctors, to the nurses, to the people working the front desk. I can safely put myself in their hands,” Helm stated.

Offering its patients’ quality health care is one of Valley General Hospital’s top priorities. A satisfied patient is something the hospital strives for on a daily basis. Recent patient satisfaction scores indicate that the hospital and the different departments are meeting that goal being consistently rated as above average (a 4 or 5 one a scale of 1 to 5).

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