Ross Memorial Hospital (RMH) has implemented an innovative Patient Experience Partner (PEP) Rounding Program where former patients collect real-time patient and family experience feedback. The positive results from their initial pilot have led to spreading the program across all acute inpatient units in the hospital. Mindy Young, Senior Lead, Quality and Patient Relations worked collaboratively with the RMH Patient & Family Council (PFC) to lead the development and implementation of this program.
Health Quality Ontario had an opportunity to catch up with Maureen Charlebois, Vice President of Quality and Mindy Young, Senior Lead, Quality and Patient Relations to discuss how the implementation of this program is leading to improved patient and family experience at RMH.
Where did the idea of collecting real-time patient and family feedback come from?
It originated from a patient champion who sits on the Patient and Family Council (PFC). This PFC member, who had previously been a patient at RMH, did not believe that the reported NRC Patient Experience scores from post-discharge surveys were reflective of the patient and family experience at RMH.
This led to a hospital wide analysis of the various methods that patient experience data was being captured (e.g. through NRC post discharge surveys, comment cards and follow-up phone surveys, to name a few). After our external analysis and consultation with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a hospital implementing real-time patient experience surveying, the PEP Rounding Program was initiated.
RMH is committed to achieving exceptional care together. We felt there was an opportunity for our hospital to engage patients in real-time to better understand and improve their experience. ‘Patient to Patient’ dialogue is an innovative QI approach and is making a positive difference!
How does the program work?
The PEP Rounding Program uses PEPs to identify and speak with patients about their experiences while receiving care at RMH.
The Patient Experience Partners (PEPs):
- Receive training on Privacy, Boundaries, Effective Listening, Infection Prevention & Control, and are assigned a mentor
- Introduce themselves, obtain consent, and notify patients that information gathered is used for QI purposes
- Provide an informal interview structure which allows patients to guide the conversation
- Ask two mandatory questions: “Would you recommend the hospital?” and “What is one thing we could do to improve your experience?”
- Document the results in an electronic tool which allows managers to see information in real-time
- Follow up on any immediate concerns with patients’ permission
See below for examples of feedback from PEPs who are part of this program.
Feedback from Patient Experience Partner (PEP) Rounding Program
Can you share the positive results you’ve seen?
For the question “would you recommend this hospital?” there was a significant gap in results obtained from our PEPs compared to our NRC survey results. The PEP program showed that 90% of patients answered “Definitely, yes” to this question compared to 50-60% in the NRC post-discharge survey.
Since the implementation of the PEP Rounding Program in February 2018, we’ve had a 9% increase in our NRC survey results related to Patient Experience. The PEP Rounding Program and our other QI strategies are positively impacting our patient care and experiences.
Results from NRC Patient Experience Survey
What advice would you give to other organizations that are interested in collecting real-time patient feedback?
From our experience, we believe it was important to:
- Ensure visible supportive leadership to encourage buy-in from managers and engagement of the frontline staff.
- Provide clear and consistent communication and messaging to ensure all staff were aware of the program and receptive to having PEPs interviewing patients on units.
- Use an electronic tool to capture data and generate reports. This cut down on the Program resource requirements and improved efficiency. As most of our PEPs are older adults, a shift from paper to electronic data gathering required education and adaption.
- Share quarterly outcomes with staff, managers, senior leadership and the board to allow stakeholders to see the impact of the program and opportunities to improve patient experience. This helped to advance a culture of continuous quality improvement.
Do you work on patient engagement at your organization? Share your feedback and questions by clicking on “Add a Comment” below or reach out to Mindy Young, on Quorum.
Ross Memorial Hospital will be sharing their findings at this year’s Health Quality Transformation Forum on October 17, 2018.