Today’s healthcare organizations (HCOs) are under increasing pressure to develop effective models for capturing patient experience data for quality performance scores, as the recent CMS 2019 policy changes made clear when they adjusted the weightings for Star Ratings measures. This in turn is motivating executives to gather data about the patient experience in real-time and not retrospectively, in theory enabling them to adjust policies and practices more effectively. However, they are likely to need help putting this plan into action, according to the latest report from Chilmark Research.
The report, Capturing Patient Experience: Current Challenges & Future Needs, examines the market for point-of-care patient experience and satisfaction survey solutions, explains what HCOs should look for when evaluating these solutions, and describes opportunities for vendors to further support Chief Experience/Quality Officers (CXOs) in their efforts to improve the patient experience.
The report draws on interviews with CXOs or Directors of Patient Experience at 11 leading HCOs, including independent practice associations, integrated delivery networks, and academic medical centers. While all 11 HCOs interviewed for this report collect retrospective data about the patient experience in order to meet the requirements of the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS), only four use a point-of-care solution to collect data in real-time or near-real-time.
“Healthcare organizations recognize the importance of collecting data about the patient experience at the point of care, both to address issues that an individual patient might be facing and to identify problems within a department or business unit,” said Brian Eastwood, Chilmark Research analyst and author of this report. “To get buy-in from executive leadership as well as front-line staff, CXOs need to align the use of point-of-care survey solutions with short- and long-term strategies for improving the overall patient experience, whether it means boosting HCAHPS scores, addressing operational challenges, or aligning with industry best practices.”
The report outlines the Functionality, Platform, and Usability features that HCOs should look for when evaluating point-of-care survey solutions; it also provides examples of basic and advanced use cases for live products. In addition, the report identifies and describes five ways that point-of-care survey vendors can support HCOs in their efforts to achieve larger patient experience goals, whether through a robust product offering or more comprehensive value-added services. Finally, the report names more than a dozen vendors providing point-of-care survey solutions.
