Background: Patient and family experience of care is a keystone of high-value care and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ value-based purchasing incentives for hospitals. As a result, most hospitals and health systems nationally have invested in improving patient experience. While hospitalists can greatly influence patient experience priorities, there is little is known about their perspectives. The Society of Hospital Medicine Patient Experience Committee (PXC) sought to better understand hospitalists’ perception of institutional and clinical group priorities to improve experience, as well as to understand the perceived impact of these initiatives.
Methods: The Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) Patient Experience Committee developed a 25-question survey that was distributed to members of the Society of Hospital Medicine and to hospitalist groups across the country. Questions assessed demographics; institutional practices around patient experience data; whether the individual received personalized data, group data, or institution level data; group/institution initiatives to improve patient experience; and the perceived impact of these initiatives on patient experience.
Results: From October 9th, 2017 to February 3rd, 2018, a total of 448 surveys were completed. Demographics are shown in Table 1. The majority of respondents reported receiving patient experience data (for themselves and or as a group). Ninety-nine percent of respondents noted some improvement activity around patient experience. The most prevalent initiatives were (1) communication training (53%), (2) group HCAHPS data (46%), and (3) interdisciplinary bedside rounding (44%). Respondents rated most initiatives a 6 out of 10 for their effectiveness, with the exception of rating both individualized Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) data and financial incentives a 5 out of 10. Respondents noted that learning about others’ experiences in improving patient experience (53%) and learning about potential collaborations for quality improvement or research in these areas (50%) were areas of interest for future work.
Conclusions: The majority of respondents in a national survey indicate that improving patient experience is a priority; however, there are many different initiatives in place with variable perceived success in improving patient experience. Additional research is needed to understand how patient experience initiatives can achieve value for both patients and care providers, including hospitalists.
Submitted on behalf of the SHM Patient Experience Writing Group
