When choosing a hospital, you want to know that your comfort and safety are a number one priority. At Northridge Hospital Medical Center, we carefully review new services and implement those that are not only proven to have a positive impact on our patients, but those that might delight them as well. You'll learn about these programs and more in the Fall 2007 issue of HealthSpeak.

Consider our Pet Therapy program affectionately named Paws That Refresh. While our dedicated hospital staff treats medical conditions, these four-egged friends care for our patients' souls and warm their hearts. A dose of puppy love is one example of how volunteers make a difference.

When you're not feeling well, it's the special touches that count. That's just one of many goals included in four new measures recently implemented by Northridge Hospital nursing leadership. Personalized care is enhanced with one-on-one communications, and engaging patients as active participants in their treatment and recovery plan.

To ensure each patient's comfort, our nursing staff does patient rounding visiting patients at least once per hour during the day and several times at night. The nursing staff checks on pain level and keeps track of individual preferences, such as favorite foods and sleeping habits. Members of our leadership team also visit patients regularly to assure their satisfaction.

Northridge Hospital created a Rapid Response Team in response to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's 100,000 Lives Campaign. This is an effort to enlist our nation's hospitals to implement changes in care proven to prevent avoidable deaths - and it is working. The team is paramount to patient safety because it can prevent a more serious medical condition, before it develops.

Dedication, compassion and a true advocacy for their patients - that is what patients at Northridge Hospital can expect from their clinical social workers who are uniquely skilled to assist patients with concerns beyond their medical status.

We have published a complete list of Northridge Hospital's physicians and their specialties to make choosing a doctor easier. You can also call Northridge Hospital's free Find-A-Physician line at (818) 908-8677 or visit our online directory.