Compass Healthcare | Case Study

Hospitals Navigate Growing Pressure Around Patient Experience, HCAHPS Scores, Sustainability, and ESG Goals

Hospitals face pressure to improve patient experience, operational performance, sustainability outcomes, and public reputation simultaneously. Patient satisfaction scores, safety grades, environmental benchmarks, and national rankings increasingly influence consumer trust, workforce recruitment, reimbursement performance, and competitive positioning across healthcare markets.

According to recent CMS HCAHPS reporting, the national average “Cleanliness of Hospital Environment” score remains approximately 74%, while top-performing hospitals achieve scores above 85%.1

At the same time, healthcare organizations continue to navigate staffing shortages, infection prevention
challenges, evolving patient expectations, and expanding ESG priorities. The U.S. healthcare sector also accounts for nearly 8.5% of national greenhouse gas emissions2, making sustainability an increasingly important operational focus for healthcare leaders.

As hospitals work to improve performance while differentiating themselves within competitive markets, healthcare recognition programs serve as visible indicators of operational excellence, patient trust, and organizational leadership.

“‘[The resources] brought to our hospital are unmatched. I have never experienced this level of support. When you hear the word outsourcing, it can have a negative connotation. This is so far from the truth when it comes to our experience… When they say, ‘call me if you need anything,’ I know they mean it.”

– Craig Stoneburner, Senior Regional Director of Operations, Crothall Healthcare

Improving HCAHPS cleanliness scores through EVS collaboration, auditing, and patient-centered operational strategies. Crothall Healthcare and TouchPoint Support Services partner with hospitals nationwide to improve healthcare environmental services performance, patient perceptions of cleanliness, and operational consistency across patient care environments.

At hospitals across Alabama, Kansas, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania, Compass Healthcare teams implemented leadership rounding, quality assurance audits, room turnaround monitoring, ATP testing, and real-time service recovery strategies designed to improve HCAHPS cleanliness performance and support infection prevention efforts.

At one TouchPoint-supported hospital, these operational strategies contributed to measurable efficiency improvements, including a 32.9% reduction in turnaround times and 99.7% task completion rates through integrated workflow and task management solutions.3

Compass Healthcare teams also collaborate closely with nursing, infection prevention, and hospital leadership teams to align EVS operations with broader organizational goals. Frontline engagement and operational accountability remain essential to long-term success, as hospitals that achieve recognition prioritize culture, communication, and sustained focus on fundamentals rather than shortterm fixes. Across five TouchPoint-supported acutecare hospitals, these strategies contributed to measurable patient experience improvements, including a 10.9-point year-over-year increase in cleanliness scores following targeted Performance Excellence initiatives.4

TouchPoint’s standardized quality assurance platform also demonstrated a 99.9% statistical confidence interval linking stronger quality assurance performance with improved patient satisfaction outcomes.5

At Inova Fair Oaks Hospital, Crothall’s workflow optimization and frontline engagement initiatives helped reduce patient bed turnaround times from 75 minutes to 48 minutes within one year, supporting improved throughput, discharge efficiency, and patient confidence in the care environment.14 Crothall’s High Profile Cleaning (HPC) methodology and patient-centered EVS strategies have also helped hospitals strengthen both patient perception and operational consistency.

At Peninsula Regional Medical Center, Crothall’s structured room-cleaning protocols, frontline engagement, flexible staffing models, and patient interaction standards contributed to a 21.7% increase in HCAHPS cleanliness scores within one year, improving from 65.4 to 81.2 and helping the hospital achieve one of Maryland’s top hospital cleanliness scores at the time.

These efforts helped 28 Compass Healthcare-supported hospitals earn recognition on Becker’s Hospital Review’s “Cleanest Hospitals” rankings while supporting strong patient experience and safety outcomes. Beyond EVS, Compass Healthcare organizations also support patient experience and operational performance through healthcare dining and foodservice transformation initiatives.

At multiple acute-care hospitals, TouchPoint culinary transformation programs contributed to a 14.4-point year-over-year improvement in patient satisfaction, a 15.1% increase in operational efficiency, and more than $542,000 in annualized cost savings through standardized culinary workflows, healthcare foodservice operating systems, and patient-centered dining strategies.11

Supporting environmental stewardship, operational efficiency, and nationally recognized healthcare sustainability achievements.

Compass Healthcare organizations help hospitals advance ESG priorities and environmental stewardship goals through sustainability planning, waste reduction initiatives, operational innovation, and cross-functional collaboration.

In 2025, 44 Compass Healthcare-supported hospitals earned Practice Greenhealth Environmental Excellence Awards7 , including Emerald, Partner for Change, and Circles of Excellence distinctions. Practice Greenhealth recognizes healthcare organizations demonstrating measurable leadership in sustainability strategy, emissions reduction, waste diversion, and environmental stewardship through a rigorous benchmarking and application process

Hospitals today must balance patient experience, operational performance, workforce engagement, sustainability priorities, and public reputation in increasingly competitive healthcare markets.

Compass Healthcare helps healthcare organizations meet those challenges through integrated support services, collaborative operational strategies, and data-driven performance improvement programs tailored to each hospital’s goals. From nationally recognized cleanliness rankings and sustainability certifications to innovative healthcare dining initiatives, Compass Healthcare helps hospitals achieve measurable outcomes that strengthen organizational performance, reinforce patient trust, and elevate hospital reputation within the communities they serve.

At Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Compass Healthcare teams supported recycling expansion, composting programs, emissions benchmarking, and sustainability initiatives that helped the facility become the first rehabilitation hospital in the nation to earn The Joint Commission’s Sustainability Healthcare Certification.8 Compass Healthcare also coordinated cross-functional efforts across EVS, FNS, facilities management, and clinical engineering to advance carbon reduction, waste diversion, and energy management strategies.

Through cross-functional collaboration, operational innovation, and measurable sustainability strategies, Compass Healthcare helps hospitals strengthen environmental performance, support ESG priorities, build community trust, and position organizations as leaders in responsible healthcare operations.