Patient Satisfaction Increases at Hospital
Patient Satisfaction Increases with Implementation of Studer Principles
Major Hospital
Shelbyville, Indiana
Annual ED Visits: 24,000
Challenge
With the never-ending list of challenges facing emergency departments today, trying to increase patient satisfaction is more challenging than ever before. But because EDs are the front door to the hospital for many patients, high patient satisfaction is critical to a hospital’s reputation and success.
Solution
EmCare has an established partnership with the Studer Group, and utilizes its principles to improve patient satisfaction at hospitals throughout the country.
Studer concepts create great places for patients to receive care by first creating great places for employees to work and physicians to practice medicine. Studer Group health care organizations experience rapid and remarkable improvement across the board, setting them apart from the average hospital. The Studer Group’s approach is different: rekindling the passion of employees and physicians by refocusing them on why they chose health care as their profession — to engage in work that is purposeful, worthwhile and makes a difference in the lives of others.
The following case study highlights the impact EmCare’s implementation of Studer principles made at Major Hospital, a 73-bed general medical and surgical hospital in Shelbyville, IN, with approximately 24,000 emergency department visits per year.
Implementing Studer Principles
When Valerie Miller, RN, MSN, began her position as manager of the emergency department at Major Hospital in 2005, improving ED patient satisfaction scores was a key objective. “My mission was to encourage staff to treat every patient like family,” says Ms. Miller. “So that’s how we started in the nursing division.” But the ED needed more — a common cause around which to unite that would provide all employees with specific methods and tools to increase patient satisfaction.
Major Hospital turned to EmCare for innovative solutions because of its reputation for providing the leadership and resources necessary in today’s competitive emergency medicine environment. EmCare’s first order of business was to recruit Chris Loman, MD, an experienced emergency department medical director known for his leadership and management expertise. Dr. Loman shared Ms. Miller’s belief in treating patients as family, bringing the evidence-based approach of the Studer Group to make that philosophy a reality.
With Dr. Loman’s guidance, the ED began implementing various Studer principles, including tactics such as rounding for outcomes, which positively impacts patients and staff. “My assistant managers round on patients, and I round on staff, physicians, and other departments within the hospital,” says Ms. Miller. “We found that to be very enlightening, and it gave us a great opportunity to improve our patient handoffs in other areas.”
Dr. Loman also put Studer’s Five Fundamentals of Service to work, which proved key to ensuring that all patients receive consistent, quality care. The Studer Group uses the acronym “AIDET” to help users remember the Five Fundamentals of Service:
Acknowledge — Acknowledge the patient by name.
Introduce — Introduce yourself, your professional certification and experience.
Duration — Give an accurate time expectation for the patient’s ED stay.
Explanation — Explain step by step what will happen and answer questions.
Thank — Thank the patient for choosing your hospital. Thank family members for their assistance.
“AIDET is working so well for us that we’re now taking it throughout the organization and even to the physician practices,” says Ms. Miller.
EmCare also brought in Client IQTM patient survey kiosks by QualitickTM to gather immediate feedback on patients’ experiences. As they exit the ED, patients have the opportunity to stop at a kiosk and respond to both standardized and customized questions. EmCare then uses the standardized responses to benchmark participating hospitals and harness best practices.
“It’s very hard to modify behavior in individuals based on Press Ganey surveys because there are so many loopholes in the way people think about Press Ganey, but with Qualitick, we can get very personal,” says Dr. Loman. “How was your nurse? How was your doctor? Were you communicated with properly? Were you happy with your visit?
“And we can ask them all of these questions before the double doors even close on them because the questions are all there for the asking,” Dr. Loman said. “I believe that such direct and instant feedback is the best way to modify individual behavior.”
Results
Major Hospital’s 2010 patient satisfaction goal was to achieve a Client IQ raw score of 85 percent across the board for nurses, physicians and the ED as a whole. “Each quarter we met that goal and surpassed it, and comparing our year-end raw scores with the November 2010 Press Ganey report, we would be at the 99th percentile,” says Ms. Miller. “We’ve made so many gains.”
According to Client IQ data, 99 percent of Major Hospital’s ED patients are happy with their care and would recommend the ED to family or friends. “The positive feedback that our staff received from the Qualitick data was phenomenal,” says Ms. Miller. “It doesn’t mean as much coming from myself or Dr. Loman, but when the patients themselves express how happy they are, that really means something to our employees.”
“We have better interpersonal working relationships that have brought a much higher level of camaraderie — a sense that we’re all in the same boat. And while we may have different functions, we’re all here to propel that boat forward,” says Dr. Loman. “Sometimes it’s hard to get people to gel, but the Studer principles have helped us do that here.”