It is well understood that obtaining feedback from patients relating to their care is important, and has positive effects on experience and outcomes. Traditional methods of collecting patient opinions are antiquated, consisting of too many questions that do not give opportunity for the patient’s voice to truly be heard. Turnaround time is long, allowing months to pass by before receiving results and delaying activation of change.

Integrating technology into the patient pathway is increasingly utilized. It is common to fill out paperwork on an online portal before arriving at your doctor, check in at a kiosk, use biometrics as an identifier, and have education materials available via online portal. Gleaning opinions from patients can be integrated with technology, too. Implementing “What Matters?” surveying techniques allow for organizations to transition away from paper and to a tablet. By engaging with patients on a digital platform, rapid reporting and activation of patient feedback allows change to happen almost immediately. Making it a routine touchpoint in the care pathway prioritizes patient feedback as an input tool and enables teams to measure change, shifting patient priorities, and positive feedback that motivates teams.

Quick surveying techniques like “What Matters?” augment already existing patient experience metrics- like HCAHPS or Press-Ganey. By becoming more agile, organizations are able to drill down to co-design ideal patient experiences and identify the greatest opportunities for improvement.

Benefits of Incorporating “What Matters”:

• Rapid collection and aggregation of patient experience data directly from the patients’ mouths
• Ability to customize scaled and open-ended questions posed to patients at scale
• Real-time identification of opportunities for improvement and what goes well in any case setting
• Anticipate patient experience scores and feedback prior to standardized patient survey results
  

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References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4376172