Our Unit-Specific Action Plans

expertise

Understanding and acting on patient feedback has made Compass One Healthcare the preeminent healthcare Food Services provider in the United States.

Through information provided to our individual units and clients, Compass One Healthcare facilitates learning and understanding of patient satisfaction surveying, strategies, and provides up-to-date resources for operators and administrators to hone their skills.

Third-Party Patient satisfaction surveys

To enhance the level of service provided by a hospital, you must first measure quality outcomes. This is essential for quality improvement; it provides a means to define what hospitals actually do so that benchmarks can be established and targets can be achieved.

In order for hospitals to analyze patient feedback and seek opportunities for improvement, hospitals use many different resources to collect customer feedback. This is often collected by “rounding” on patient rooms, listening to the customers while performing daily operations, and through third-party surveys. Third-party measurement surveys are voluntary surveys distributed to patients post-discharge in order to better understand the patients’ perception of care.

Most facilities hire a third-party vendor to distribute patient surveys to gain insight into the patients’ inner thoughts. Unlike adult inpatient HCAHPS and Child HCAHPS, each survey method varies in scoring, method (or mode) of distribution, questions asked, and method of data analytics. Also, unlike a national HCAHPS program, third-party survey data is proprietary to the account and, as previously mentioned, is optional. It is important to note that there is no penalty for facilities that choose not to participate or for those who minimally perform in their third-party patient satisfaction results.

The CAHPS Child Hospital Survey (Child HCAHPS) evaluates the experiences of patients (17 and younger) and their parents or guardians with inpatient care. It complements the HCAHPS survey, which asks adult inpatients about their perception of care. The main purpose of the Child Hospital Survey is to address the need to assess and improve the experiences of pediatric inpatients and their parents. The movement toward a standardizing this survey continues to move forward and will soon be a mandatory focus of the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). We anticipate further standardization of this in the future as national mandates evolve.

This third-party information is useful for interpretation of the quality of patient care. Third-party vendors allow hospitals to analyze their data without a predetermined time frame. This allows the hospital to further examine reasons for trends in patient satisfaction, and why some areas perform better. It also helps unit leaders identify opportunities for improvement.

advantages to third-party Patient Surveys

There are advantages to using a third-party’s patient survey, such as the following:

1. The ability to receive timely patient satisfaction data. Although the availability of the scores will vary by third-party patient satisfaction measurement method, these scores are typically available to the healthcare provider on a daily, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis.

2. The ability to analyze patient scores in multiple ways (i.e., discharge date/received date; trending by day, month, quarter, or year; by unit, specialty, sex, age, length of stay; or by question).

3. The ability to supply patient verbatim comments to the healthcare provider.

differences in third-party Patient Surveys

The mode of third-party survey distribution is dependent on the survey company used and the options available to the facility. Although written, mail-only surveys are the most popular. Many other ways of gathering patient information can be used. These include, but are not limited to, active IVR (Interactive Voice Response), phone, mixed mode (phone and mail), email, on-site computer survey, and face-to-face patient interaction.

Questions asked, frequency, mode of distribution, and scoring specifics vary by thirdparty patient satisfaction company. These vary by patient satisfaction measurement method but generally include one to ten questions pertaining to temperature of food, courtesy, quality of food, availability of options, received all items ordered and the patient’s perception of meal satisfaction overall. Additional non-standard questions may also be added to third-party surveys in order to gain further understanding of patient satisfaction. Commonly used third-party vendors along with some survey specifics include, but are not limited to, the following:

press ganey

Website: www.pressganey.com

Website to access real-time data: www.pressganey.com

Press Ganey has been the most popular third-party survey with more than 10,000 healthcare organizations (approximately 40% of all U.S. acute care hospitals) utilize this survey to improve clinical and business outcomes.

Although there are options to change this on Press Ganey’s online, Improvement Portal website, Press Ganey scores by default are calculated viewing the data based on received date.

Distribution mode(s): mail, telephone, email

Press Ganey questions that directly pertain to Food and Nutrition Services:

1. IP: Temperature of Food (Response options: Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor, Very Poor) 2. IP: Quality of Food (Response options: Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor, Very Poor) 3. IP: Courtesy of Person Serving Food (Response options: Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor,

Very Poor) 4. IP: Meals Overall (Summary Score that is an average of the above questions. This does not appear as a question on the Press Ganey survey, but the Meals Overall summary score can be evaluated by Press Ganey users) 5. IP: Special Diet Explanations (Response options: Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor, Very

Poor) 6. IP: Availability of Food Child Likes (Response options: Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor,

Very Poor)

Child HCAHPS question that Food and Nutrition Services can contribute to):

Hospitals can have things like toys, books, mobiles, and games for children from newborns to teenagers. During this hospital stay, did the hospital have things available for your child that were right for your child’s age?

(Response options: Yes Definitely, Yes Somewhat, No)

National Research Corporation (NRC) Picker

Website: www.nrcpicker.com

Website to access real-time data: https://nrcpicker.com/eReports

National Research Corporation (NRC), founded in 1981, is an organization dedicated to improving the quality of care provided in the healthcare industry. NRC acquired the Picker Institute in 2001 to better understand their world-class facility of surveys. After years of researching patients and facility members, NRC Picker feels that they have determined what is most important to patients and family members as well as how to measure those aspects.

To best align with the HCAHPS process, NRC Picker calculates scores by discharge date.

Distribution mode(s): telephone, mail

NRC Picker questions that directly pertain to Food and Nutrition Services:

1. IP: Please rate your level of Satisfaction with the food served to you during your recent hospital stay. (Response options: Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor) 2. IP: How often did this staff who brought you your food treat you with courtesy and respect? (Response options: Always, Usually, Sometimes, Never) 3. IP: Was there enough variety of food choices? (Response options: Yes Definitely, Yes

Mostly, Yes Somewhat, No) 4. IP: Overall, do you think the food was healthy and nutritious? (Response options:

Yes Definitely, Yes Mostly, Yes Somewhat, No) 5. IP: How often did you get all of the food items you ordered? (Response options:

Always, Usually, Sometimes, Never) 6. IP: How often were you provided napkins, utensils, salt/pepper and the right condiments when your food was delivered? (Response options: Always, Usually,

Sometimes, Never) 7. IP: How often was the freshness and appearance of your food excellent? (Response options: Always, Usually, Sometimes, Never) 8. IP: How often was the flavor of your food excellent? (Response options: Always,

Usually, Sometimes, Never) 9. IP: How often was the temperature of your food hot OR cold enough? (Response options: Always, Usually, Sometimes, Never)

Child HCAHPS question that Food and Nutrition Services can contribute to:

Hospitals can have things like toys, books, mobiles, and games for children from newborns to teenagers. During this hospital stay, did the hospital have things available for your child that were right for your child’s age?

(Response options: Yes Definitely, Yes Somewhat, No)

Professional Research consultants (PRC)

Website: www.prconline.com

Website to access real-time data: www.prceasyview.com

PRC’s commitment to providing healthcare organizations with only the highest quality data began with its founding in 1980. PRC believes that, through measuring satisfaction, an organization can increase customer loyalty. PRC claims it is this loyalty that drives the entire patient experience, not just among the facility’s patients, but also physicians, employees, and the community it serves.

PRC therefore offers a complete survey approach to assess health risk, health status measurements, and loyalty creation, believing their methods best increase overall satisfaction.

Distribution mode(s): telephone

PRC questions that directly pertain to Food and Nutrition Services:

1. IP: Overall, how would you rate the food that was served to (you/your family member) while in the hospital? Would you say:(Response options: Excellent, Very

Good, Good, Fair, Poor) 2. IP: How would you rate the courtesy and helpfulness of the person who delivered (your/your family member’s) meals?Would you say: (Response options: Excellent,

Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor) 3. IP: How would you rate the selection of menu items? Would you say: (Response options: Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor) 4. IP: How would you rate the food that was delivered to your room? Would you say: (Response options: Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor)

Child HCAHPS question that Food and Nutrition Services can contribute to):

Hospitals can have things like toys, books, mobiles, and games for children from newborns to teenagers. During this hospital stay, did the hospital have things available for your child that were right for your child’s age?

(Response options: Yes Definitely, Yes Somewhat, No)