Patient experience is top of the mind for all senior management in the healthcare sector. The pandemic has amplified the value of care and the metrics of quality have been redefined.
No longer just a tick in the box, patient satisfaction is now a key tool health care providers must leverage to ensure constant feedback is analysed and acted upon.
Healthcare service provision must have patient satisfaction at its core if value-based care is to be achieved. So what are the steps to achieve this?
Patient satisfaction surveys
Patient satisfaction surveys enable healthcare providers to:
Improve service delivery metrics by identifying gaps
Ensure robust quality assessment frameworks
Fasttrack provision of quality improvement initiatives
Benchmark for ensuring any changes to the care delivery mechanisms are favourably impacting patient experience
The patient experience survey must focus on 8 key parameters including:
Communication with hospital staff and clinicians
Empathy and pain management
Hygiene and cleanliness
Comfort and peace in the surrounding
Pain management
Communication regarding medicines
Discharge process is simple and streamlined
Information is easily available via app or website
Data captured must be insightful, metrics-driven, and monitored.
Regardless of the phase and organizational hierarchy there are 4 principles health organisations must adhere to for effective data governance: 1. Data Value: Organisations need to make stakeholders understand data is a strategic asset, its value must be unequivocally embedded across the whole organization from the board – to all functional team members. 2. Data Culture: Building a data-driven culture is a meticulous task, one that is well rewarded over time. Health organisations must attach goals and milestones around data acquisition when embedding a data-first approach within their departments. For good data governance, the data must be compliant as per GDPR and other regulatory guidelines. 3. Organisational Alignment: The data governance policy must articulate and support the strategic priorities of the health organisation. Data must be captured and stored to service the needs of stakeholders, identify conflicts and opportunities, and patterns of behaviour. 4. Lean Methodology: Lean methodology is a good strategy to adopt. The leadership team must exercise judiciousness and evaluate the needs and set goalposts as the project advances, or the organization matures. Data governance must be adhered to till the very end of a project if ROI is to be maximized. Will AI enable us to predict future pandemics and improve healthcare delivery? Read on
