PATIENT EXPERIENCE: DATA DRIVEN INSIGHT TO PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Mark A. Walker, MHA, MBA

Director of Business Development

Fertility Centers of Illinois

Learning Objectives• Understanding why patient experience data and insights

in the age of consumer driven medical care

• Finding tools that exists to obtain patient experience data and insights

• Discovering unique ways to apply these tools

• Measuring data points and which are most important to your practice

• Implementing data driven change in the clinical setting

“If quality is to be at the heart of everything we do, it must be understood from the perspective of patients.”

Lord Darzi, MD

Disclaimer:

I don’t believe “customer service” is a strategic advantage!

Weird, right? Most customers have no idea what constitutes quality or how to

evaluate it. You put yourself in the position of having to “prove it” to the customer

so they can actually see if for themselves.

You have to be so far above the industry that it would be obvious. Anything short and the competitors can easily negate your advantage!!!

True or False:

Patient satisfaction surveys are a good idea?

Answer: That depends on your perspective….

Several excuses can affect perspective: You don’t feel the data is reliable… You think it’s too costly… Maybe you just don’t want to be measured… You don’t understand what you’re measuring…

A Fundamental Change in Health Care

• A rapid growth in availability and use of health care information…

• Growing desire to be more involved and active in decisions…

• A trend towards customization of products and services leads to a marketplace of options…

• Ultimately a declining level of trust in institutions like hospitals, insurance companies and even physicians…

California Healthcare Foundation: http://www.chcf.org/~/media/MEDIA%20LIBRARY%20Files/PDF/C/PDF%20ConsumersInHealthCareBurdenChoice.pdf

Attainable Wisdom: Listen, Learn & Fulfill

Patient Needs Real Concern Opportunity

Difficult to measure success of care.

Don’t have resources to track

personal health information. Patients Do Not

Feel Heard in Process!!!!

Patients want to be known and heard.

Unable to make informed financial

decisions.

Access to timely and convenient

care.

Patients want easy access to healthcare information and services.

DEMAND GENERATION

Don’t feel well informed about conditions or

treatment plans.

Leave appointments

confused about next steps.

Patients want to understand their disease, care plan AND

want to have providers talk to each other.

Struggle to keep provider informed.

Don’t feel like anyone is

coordinating their care.

Patients want to be “shepherded” through the process.

Organize the Opportunity Right in Front of You

Defining Research

Quantitative

• Logical and data-driven.• Provides a measure of

what people think from a statistical and numerical point of view.

For example, if you wanted to know how many of your patients support a proposed change in your products or service and how strongly (on a scale) they support it.

Qualitative

• Helps reveal a range of behavior & perceptions on a specific issue.

• In-depth studies of small groups of people to guide and support the construction of hypotheses.

• More descriptive rather than predictive.

What Kind of Research?Task Research Method

Monitoring PerformanceQUANTITATIVEPatient Experience Surveys

Assessing Quality of Care Patient Experience Surveys

Determining Population Priorities Local Population Surveys

Patient EngagementQUALITATIVEPatient Panels

Stakeholder Concerns Analyze Written Materials

Attitudes and Beliefs Focus Groups

Testing Services OfferedMystery ShoppingDirect Observation

Public Opinion Intentional Events & Conversations

Available Tools:

A multitude of tools exist to help you capture

feedback easily from your patients.

AND MANY MORE….

However…

It’s NOT the tool that’s important!

3 Tenants of a Valuable Survey

BREVITY

CLARITY

CONSISTENCY

Even an in house survey can be valuable, if implemented correctly!

Application of Existing Tools:

There are many ways to apply them in your practice

Email Surveys:

Paper Based Surveys:

What are the data points?

• Loyalty Index – This is the Net Promoter Score (NPS). NPS is calculated on results from the “Likelihood to Recommend” question on the survey. The NPS calculation is the standard (5s – (1s + 2s + 3s)) / Total Responses).

• Overall Satisfaction – This is the average of the overall experience question - “Please rate your overall experience at XYZ Practice.

• Likelihood to recommend – This is the average of the likelihood to recommend – “What is the likelihood to recommend XYZ Practice to your friends and family?”

Quantitative

The triangulation of DataQualita

tive

Tracking Results Over Time

Implementing Change• Change is hard:

“The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.”

Even the most change-averse physician groups are finding it difficult to stay the same.

How to Gain Buy In:• Present The Data: Graphs’ and Charts are most effective

(and most well received by Physicians)

• Direct and Relevant Quotes to Support Data:“I think what this comes down to is going through this process is incredibly stressful.

The definition of stress is feeling like you’re not in control… There are so many things that are out of your control that every little bit that they can tell you:

‘this is what’s going on, this is what you can do, and this is what we are going to do to help you,’ will improve that experience for us.”

• Photo’s, Video’s and Visuals:

Patient Tesimonial Video

Gaining Buy In Continued…• Involve Key Stakeholders:

Leadership

Nurses

Physicians

Support Staff

IT Department

Patients

Getting these groups involved from the start will make your task easier and will insure the final outcomes are

more successful and wide-reaching.

You Have Buy In, Now What?• Create a Work Group: Be Clear with what you are trying

to accomplish! Groups without clarity are doomed.

Choose Participants Carefully

Cross-Functional

Build Relationships

Match Skillset with responsibilities

Delegate Specific Actions

Encourage, Encourage, Encourage

SMART GOALS

"Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage, but simply because they have never

organized their energies around a goal.“

- Elbert Hubbard

SMART Goals• Specific: Determine EXACTLY what needs to be done

• Measureable: Make sure you know how you will achieve

• Achievable: Be realistic

• Relevant: Relate the actions to important issues

• Timebound: Set a specific date for completion.

Create and Action Plan

A Sample Action Plan: Reduce Check in Time

Identified Issue Objective Work

Required Timescale ResponsibilityLink with

Other Work

Patients Check in Time is Too Long

Reduce Check in Time for Patients

• Check in Process Evaluation

• IT System Evaluation

• 1 Week = Data collection.• 2 Weeks = Systems

Review• 2 Weeks = Test New

Process

• Office Manager• Front Desk Staff• IT Department

Increase Patient Throughput and Physician Effectiveness

Questions?

Mark A. Walker, MBA, MHA, EMT-P

Director, Business Development

Fertility Centers of Illinois

mark.walker@integramed.com

1-847-832-6840