Explore 5 proven methods for understanding the patient experience beyond the patient satisfaction survey. Created by Kristin Baird, RN, BSN, MHS, this presentation is designed to help the healthcare professional delve deeper into the patient experience through rounding, mystery shopping, intercept interviews, and more.
2. Housekeeping
Recorded webinar is available at baird-group.com
• 60-minute session includes Q&A at the end
• Participants are muted
• Please enter questions in the question area of
your control panel
• We will be asking some polling questions –
please be prepared to submit responses
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3. What We’ll Cover
• Why it’s important to delve deeper into the
customer experience
• Five methods used in understanding the
customer experience beyond the patient
satisfaction survey.
– How they are used
– Pros and cons of each method
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4. About Baird Group
The Baird Group’s mission is to help our healthcare clients fulfill their
missions. We achieve this by,
1.Helping them understand the current reality
• Culture assessments/diagnosis
• Mystery shopping
2. Helping them close the gap between the promise and the reality
• Customer service strategies and training
• Leadership development
• Employee engagement
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5. Why Delve Deeper?
• You can’t fix what you don’t know about
• It’s 6 – 10 times more costly to attract a new
customer than to retain one
• Patients and visitors talk openly about their
experiences (think social media)
• Reimbursement is at stake (HCHAPS)
• Live your promise
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6. Moment of Truth
“Is the moment when your patient decides if
you are what you say you are.”
-Susan Keane Baker, Managing Patient Expectations
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7. Methods for a Deeper Dive
• Rounding
• Mystery shopping
• In-depth interviews
• Focus groups
• Intercept interviews (with or without video
capture)
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8. Rounding
Leaders interact directly
with patients and
visitors to learn more
about their experience
in real time.
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9. Are you doing rounding consistently
throughout the organization AND
tracking results?
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10. Rounding
Pros Cons
• Done in real time, which • Patients may not speak
allows you to make openly
improvements while they • Time consuming
are still on site • Often done as a drive-by
• Inexpensive rather than a true
• Ownership for results interaction
• Models desired behavior • Information is kept in
silos and not used to
make organization-wide
change
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11. How helpful would an app be that
would track rounds including patient
concerns?
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12. Mystery Shopping
Using trained observers to
document the encounter
and give feedback about the
experience
• Phone calls
• Patient visits
• Walkthroughs
• Care partner observers
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13. Mystery Shopping Phone Calls
“Before you go into detail, this is
a clinic. I cannot help you.”
“That practice is closed.”
“We don’t do that here.”
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16. “You’ll be admitted Family member
to room 407, but walks to rm 407 and
that room isn’t ready sees that it is clean
yet.” and ready. Waits 2
hrs for transfer.
“We’ll let the nurses “Where did you get
on the unit give you Waits 2 hrs for that green bracelet?
something for pain transfer & pain med. No you didn’t get it
when you get there.” in our ER. If I put
that in the record
“Because you will be Family member they’ll think I’m
having surgery, you wonders why nurse retarded.” Puts NPO
cannot have would cap off IV on the white board.
anything to eat or when patient is
drink.” Green already thirsty and
Bracelet & IV has a headache.
inserted but capped.
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18. Mystery Shopping
Pros Cons
• Objective observer • Requires financial
• Thorough documentation investment
• Stories that resonate with • Culture may not be ready
the heart for this level of information
• Identifies star performers
and best practices
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19. In-Depth Interviews
• One-on-one interviews
conducted with the
intention of learning
more about a specific
topic
• Allows discovery of
underlying beliefs and
attitudes
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20. In-Depth Interviews
Pros Cons
• Promotes trust and • Requires financial
confidence to get at investment when using
sensitive issues outside interviewers
• Allows patients to speak • Internal interviewers may
candidly with an outside create bias
listener
• Skilled interviewers can see
connections between
responses and quantitative
data.
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21. Focus Groups
• Guided discussion with
a select group of
individuals focused on a
specific topic or subject
• Patient expectations vs.
experience
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22. Focus Group Examples
• Expectations of their
providers
• Appointment access
• Wait time
• Staff and physician
communication
• What is most important
to you?
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23. Focus Groups
Pros Cons
• Rich information that often • Financial investment
includes stories • Need skilled facilitator who
• Can assess emotional can handle disruptors
reactions
• Verbatim comments are
useful in relaying results to
physicians and staff
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24. Intercept Interviews (Video Option)
• Patients and visitors are
randomly intercepted
for a brief interview
• Video option
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25. Intercept Interviews
Pros Cons
• Opportunity to gather • Requires sensitivity and
stories while the experience skilled interviewers
is recent • Financial investment
• Video option can be used • Participant permission to be
internally to give filmed
organizational leaders a
“slice of life” view
• Resonates with the heart
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27. Contact Information
Kristin Baird, President/CEO
kris@baird-group.com
Baird Group
(920) 563-4684
baird-group.com
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Editor's Notes
Created by Kristin Baird, CEO Baird Group Fort Atkinson, WI Baird-group.cominfo@baird-group.com(920)563 4684
.
Mystery shopping is a great way to dig deeper into the patient experience. It is one that is becoming more widely used in the healthcare industry. The Baird group works with hospitals, medical practices and long term care facilities across the country to find out more about the real experience. We have methods for gathering data using mystery shopping. These include phone calls – where we call looking for an appointment or information about services and then gauge that encounter on several criteria including friendliness, knowledge about the provider and service, empathy and appointment access. The mystery shopper uses scenarios appropriate for the specialty or service line. The caller not only documents what happened during the encounter, but also adds his or her emotional response to the phone attendant. Patient visits are another really useful form of mystery shopping that allows us to evaluate the encounter from the very first phone call all the way through the close of the encounter , the bill and any follow up information.Walk throughs are just what they sound like. Our mystery shoppers document the experience from the first navigational signs and throughout the walk through. They do photo documentation and observation – again, they are documenting the facts as well as their impressions. The fourth method within mystery shopping is great for inpatient experiences. We have developed a great methodology as a care partner where we are partnered with a patient and accompany them throughout all or a portion of their admission. We successfully use this method for both scheduled admissions as well as admissions through the ER. Case example: One of our clients uses mystery shopping as a pre requisite for any marketing activity. The Marketing department led the charge but it pushed operations into better customer service and process improvements. Phone call on pediatric epilepsy where we knew that they provided the service but wanted to test the information given. Referred to a competitor. You can see why it was important for them to know what the patient experience was on the phone before launching a big ad campaign. Here are a few more examples.
Our mystery shoppers complete thousands of phone calls all over the country. Some of the things that they hear make them feel confident in an organization after just a few minute phone call. Other encounters leave them confused and even put off.
Walkthroughs and patient visits give an opportunity to see what the patients and visitors see. They document with photos and give a summary of their impressions and how it made them feel. They give their reaction.
As I mentioned the care partner/observers have the opportunity to follow along as a family member or friend as the patient goes through their healthcare experience. In the example I am about to share, the care partner/observer joined the patient in the ER so that she could observe and document handoffs from ER to the inpatient setting including shift changes and as the hospitalists changed off.
Focus groups are very useful in exploring patient expectations and how those expectations compare to their actual experiences. The gaps identified give rich information. Some of the things that we have used focus groups for include…
We recently did focus groups that revealed some important patient perceptions about a medical practice that, when presented to the physicians, demonstrated that their scheduling practices were turning people toward the competitors. In one group, the perception was that the clinic closed down for over 90 minutes in the middle of the day. Focus group particiapants actually started coaching one another about work-arounds. When to call, which days to avoid.
The last method that I’ll mention is intercept interviews.These interviews can be about specific aspects of the encounter like parking, registration, or wayfinding. They can also be as detailed as describing their total experience. It does require that you have permission and skilled interviewers. We recently did a series of intercept, man-on-the-street interviews that were video taped as a method to help leaders embrace the real experience with their patients. Interviews were done outside and inside buildings in conjunction with the marketing team who would get permission and signature, we would conduct the interview. The film was edited to a 10 min. video used in management. The stories that people told were amazing and did wonders for helping managers to embrace the customer experience.