HCS CLIENT SURVEYS

HOME & COMMUNITY SERVICES CLIENT SURVEYS

Work began over the summer to conduct a client survey in early November. Launching of this survey involved coordinating with DSHS Research and Data Analysis, data pulls from CARE, creation of call sheets, scripts, and decision trees followed by a call for staff volunteers who were then trained and provided 1:1 support as needed. HCS Outcome Improvement Specialist Montana Salvoni played a key role in managing this with support from ALTSA Organizational Development Administrator Amy Besel.

“Thank you to everyone who volunteered,” Montana said. “We got really positive feedback from our clients, and I heard so many stories about how happy folks were to know that HCS cares this much. We collected really valuable information, and made people feel cared for at the same time – what an awesome accomplishment.”

Given the time commitment needed to get a statistically significant sample, which would have involved over a dozen staff working full time over the course of two weeks to complete the survey, HCS leadership decided to pursue a smaller sample through piloting the survey with a goal of completing 100 surveys. While this is not a statistically significant sample size, it was otherwise valid and random across all settings. Moving forward with the full survey would have been cost prohibitive and likely yielded similar responses. Therefore, HCS leadership decided not to proceed with the larger survey, but to share what we learned from the smaller sample and use it to inform future decision-making around what services we may offer remotely after the pandemic, while balancing the best practice, risk-reducing, value of in-person services.

Here is what we learned:

86.13% of respondents are happy with the services they have received remotely, 10.89% were neutral and only 2.97% were dissatisfied.

75% report ease in getting ahold of their DSHS/AAA case manager when needed, with 16% neutral and only 9% experiencing challenges.

63% want the option to receive some of their services remotely after the pandemic, 16.83% were neutral, and 19.8% do not want remote services.

We also gathered a handful of new clients to join the HCS Service Experience Team, a client advisory group that meets regularly to assist us in improving policy, services and information to those we serve.

Overall, this pilot survey was highly successful, reflecting our staff are doing great work meeting client needs through these unprecedented times.