Signature Healthcare

BACK TO HEALTHCARE

Download

Problem

Signature Healthcare needed to:

Radically improve response rates for patient feedback
They wanted to generate this feedback from patients while in the hospital
Utilize the Management Alert feature to address any service issues in the moment
Reduce costs associated with collecting patient feedback

How Survey On The Spot helped

The surveys are being used in the Transitional Care Unit of Brockton Hospital.

When a patient is ready to go home they are given an iPad running Survey On The Spot. Although the system is very user-friendly, the staff offers to fill out the survey for them if a patient is incapable of using the keyboard on the screen. We also offer a handwritten form so that the patient has the opportunity to elaborate on any question. The patients make their selections and it only takes about 2-3 minutes to complete. As soon as it's completed the results are sent directly to management by email and available thru the web portal. Staff is also alerted when anything is reported as "poor" which allows immediate action for damage control.

The Nursing Administration department is also using Survey On The Spot throughout the hospital to gain insights into nursing care.

Management Alerts:

Delivered within 10 seconds of survey submission. These have proven very effective for staff coaching in particular. Feedback can be delivered before the shift is over.

Cost savings:

Plans to eliminate paper comment cards and prepaid postage.
The ability to make quick decision based on real-time data reduces costs associated with repetitive issues.

Other observations:

Easy visibility of the system creates a stronger 'Service Halo' within the organization.
Everyone is 'aware'.
Automated report delivery keeps patient satisfaction top of mind.

Voice of OUR Customer, Mike Baldassarre, Administrator for the Transitional Care Unit at Brockton Hospital

What made you interested in Survey On The Spot?

I read an article in the Boston Globe where they explained how they are surveying restaurants for customer satisfaction. I thought it might have a good application in healthcare. Coincidentally, I was looking to measure patient satisfaction and it was not working efficiently through TCU.

I wasn't getting any feedback plus they were not timely.I was looking to measure patient satisfaction and it was not working efficiently through TCU. I wasn't getting any feedback plus they were not timely.

What I like about SOTS is that it is immediate. You can follow up with the patient before they actually leave the hospital. I find that there is incredible value in the immediacy of gaining the feedback.

My previous system would take 7-10 days after discharge versus receiving the feedback right away. Through the paper based system, you may get info 2-3 weeks after discharge and by then it is irrelevant and inaccurate.

How do you utilize Survey On The Spot?

We designed 10 questions. When we know a patient is ready to go home we will go in with the iPad and show it to the patient. Although the system is very user-friendly, we do offer to fill out the survey for them if a patient is incapable of using the keyboard on the screen. We also offer a handwritten form so that the patient has the opportunity to elaborate on any question. The patients make their selections and it only takes about 2-3 minutes to complete. As soon as it's completed the results are sent directly to us. We are also alerted when anything is reported as "poor" which allows us to report for damage control.

How does this survey system compare to your previous system?

It is one thousand times better in my mind. It eliminates the pitfalls of using a paper based system. With our previous system, we were making follow up phone calls in order to receive feedback but now we no longer have to do that. I wasn't getting good valued information through the paper based system. Patient satisfaction is top of the line for us. Not receiving enough feedback for it to be valuable was a problem. In addition, making the follow up phone calls was time consuming, inefficient and costly.

How has Survey On The Spot worked for Brockton Hospital so far?

The system went live on February 7th, 2011. In the first week we have had 14 discharges and 13 agreed to participate in the survey. My prediction is that we will get very high compliance. I am anticipating 90-95% of our discharges will agree to fill out the survey.

The feedback coming through with our previous system was all over the place. It was not statistically valid because of the inconsistency. We were getting about 30-40% of our discharges satisfaction feedback. I expect much more with Survey On The Spot.

Do you think this has the potential to work for other departments in the hospital?

Absolutely. I have let my colleagues know and we will be sharing the results when we go to quality improvement. [The Nursing Adminstration is now using Survey On The Spot throughout the hospital.]

We have outpatient office facilities. I think this could also work for someone who has an office appointment to rate their satisfaction from the booking to the actual appointment.

What do you see as some of the benefits of using Survey On The Spot at a hospital?

If there is a systems issue within the hospital then I need to know about it immediately so that I can deal with it right away. With Survey On The Spot I can do this. For example, yesterday I got a poor response to one of the survey questions. I can determine what patient it was coming from (although the survey is anonymous) and report to the issue and make sure we recover from it.

Would you be to recommend Survey On The Spot to other hospitals?

I like it. My staff likes it. You can get a lot of good quality and valid data. The charts that the system provides have the results mapped out so that we can visually see how we are doing with each question. It shows where we scored high and where we need to improve therefore we can take the data and turn it into quality improvement.