Being hospitalized can be a worrisome experience for both patients and their families.

That’s why how patients are treated during their hospital stay is important to alleviating any concerns and helping ensure quality outcomes.

St. Clair Hospital takes its patient care mission very seriously and, as a result, has been recognized time and again for its high patient satisfaction rankings. Most recently, St. Clair earned a four-star (out of five) ranking in patient satisfaction from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

“Our employees understand that the majority of patients do not want to be in a hospital,” Joan Massella, administrative vice president and chief nursing officer at St. Clair told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in a story about St. Clair’s high ranking. “They are there because they are having a crisis in their life … and (caregivers at St. Clair) really try to show the compassion and understanding that any of us would want to have.”

In a separate, earlier survey of patients, St. Clair scored best among Allegheny County hospitals, achieving the highest overall satisfaction score. Eighty percent of patients polled said they would give St. Clair a rating of 9 or 10 on a 1 to 10 scale.

Massella credits not only her nursing staff, and the hospital’s physicians, but all clinicians and other employees who contribute to patient experience. “Patients are looking for someone to connect with, someone they can trust, so they know that their needs are being met,” she said in a recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story.

That same story also cited St. Clair as being among the top 2 percent of U.S. hospitals nationwide for patient satisfaction, according to an independent survey.

And a division of Comparion Medical Analytics, which, among other things, provides patient satisfaction findings to organizations including the Pittsburgh Business Group on Health, named St. Clair among the Pittsburgh region’s top hospitals.