Patient Experience
Background of service
During this internship, I learned about proper interactions with patients in a hospital setting. When patients come into the hospital the service can be a great stay for them but other times there can be a situation that, as a staff, might not seem like a problem or gets over looked but to the patient it made their experience unwelcoming. Patient Experience is a survey processes that volunteers/ interns go into each room on the floors to be a voice for the patients and to also collect data for different departments in the hospital to see if they are providing good services. The departments include: Nurses, Nursing Assistant, Doctors, Case Managers, House Cleaning, Nutrition, and more. The data that is collected goes to the Quality Department where in weekly meetings the head of the departments use the data to see areas that need to be improved on or situations that patients addressed through the survey process that need to be taken care of. At South County Hospital there are three main floors that make up the facility that includes: Orthopedics (first floor), Telemetry (second floor), and Medical Surgery (third floor). Each floor has 20 rooms.
Survey application
To conduct these surveys the hospital uses Qualaris.
Qualaris mission and vision is that "We want to be the ultimate partner for improvement in healthcare.
That’s why it’s our mission to empower people to bring simplicity and scale to transform healthcare."
This simple application is used on the hospital issues Ipad's that make the survey process easy to access, breaks the data down into graphs and other data related displays, and creates an efficient exhibit for the volunteers and interns to conduct the surveys.
Qualaris mission and vision is that "We want to be the ultimate partner for improvement in healthcare.
That’s why it’s our mission to empower people to bring simplicity and scale to transform healthcare."
This simple application is used on the hospital issues Ipad's that make the survey process easy to access, breaks the data down into graphs and other data related displays, and creates an efficient exhibit for the volunteers and interns to conduct the surveys.
Mock Patient Experience Survey Administration:
I decided to show the knowledge that I have gained with this aspect of my internship by creating a mock patient experience survey relating to the questions that I ask patients and how each question affects some department in the hospital. These questions are all related to another branch in the hospital and the data we collect is used to help staff members provide better quality of service. In a hospital, many different departments make up the patients stay. For example, nurses check in on patients while the housekeepers keep the rooms clean. All of these tasks are imperative to when the patient enters the hospital all the way to when they are discharged. It is a cumulative effort by everyone and from this survey it allows us to improve the services provided.
Volunteer: *knocks on door* "Hello! How are you today? My name is Chandler and I am apart of the Patient Experience Team here at South County and was wondering if now was a good time to answer a few questions that I have in regards to your experience here?"
"I see your room is nice and clean, have you seen a housekeeper come in?"
-This question allows for the patient to voice if they are finding their room clean and provided with proper materials that the housekeeper would provide. This also allows us to address how well the housekeepers are doing with keeping the room clean. For example: are toilet papers stocked, sheets changed and clean, etc. This also connects to another question on the survey asking "Are you satisfied with the cleanliness of your room?"
"I see your whiteboard is updated with everything going on, have you seen the nurses keeping this updated?"
-Every room has a whiteboard that has all vitals, medication, diet, when they plan to leave, all the staff involved with their stay (doctor, nurses, nurses assistant, housekeeper, case manager), pain scale, date, and more. This allows us to see if the nurses are keeping everything updated which is VERY important for other people coming in to know what the patient is being administered and other information that is relevant. Example: if under diet it says NPO it means nothing by mouth which is important so if the patient asks for water whoever is in the room knows that this is not medically allowed.
"When you use the call light are the nurses coming in a timely manner?"
-This is used to see if the nurses are caring for the patient when they need them. Example, if the patient is at a risk of falling they use the call light to tell the nurses they would like to get up and use the restroom. If the patient is waiting a very long time to go to the bathroom this would be incorrect service. This allows feedback for the nurses.
"Have you had a meal yet? How's the food?"
-This question varies on the patient because they could be on a cardiac diet, diabetic, NPO (nothing by mouth), or clear liquids. Based on what we see on the board we can skip or ask this question differently. This allows for the patient to voice nutritional concerns and gives us an opportunity to add feedback to the Department of Food Distribution so they can alter anything with their service.
"Is the temperature of the room comfortable for you?"
-This is used to make sure that the patient is comfortable in their rooms. It allows us to see if any malfunctions are occurring or if the patient is unaware that they have control over the temperature of their room that can be adjusted to what they are comfortable with. Furthermore, it gives them the opportunity to know that the hospital has heated blankets and other comfort items.
"Do you know how to use your remote control for the TV?"
-When the patients first arrive in their rooms the nurses explain how to use the TV remote for entertainment. Sometimes patients can forget where the volume or mute button are on the remote. Additionally, this gives us the opportunity to help the patients with entertainment sources (TV or Comfort Cart). For example, the patient may not know the channels available so it would be our responsibility to find a channel guide which is provided at the nursing station for the patient.
-"Is it a quite environment to get some sleep?"
This allows for feedback if nurses, doctors, volunteers, or other staff members on the floor are being to loud. I usually direct the patient that they can shut their door to block out some of the noise. This question gets different response because many times the nurses have to be in and out to check on vitals and also it is a hospital that means there is always going to be action on the other side of their door. However, having an environment that patients can recover from surgeries is very important to their stay and we want to make sure they are getting enough rest.
"Do you feel included in your care plan?"
-With a care plan, I direct this question by further explaining: "This care plan involves are you feeling included with your care during your stay and are you able to ask the doctors and nurses questions while getting answers to those questions." This is where we look for if the patients feel comfortable communicating with the doctors and if they feel that they are being cared for by them. Additionally, it is important that the patient feels involved with the care processes and getting questions answered in a way that they can have an understanding of whats going on.
-"When you have pain concerns are the staff members addressing this?"
Many times the patients are experiencing pain during their stay from surgery or other reasons. This is important to address so their stay is more comfortable. Medication needs to be administered at a proper time to stay on top of the pain so they do not experience it. For example, nurses can be really on top of this or other times medication administration to the patient can get lost in communication and they could be waiting to receive medication for a long period of time which is not wanted.
-"Are you overall satisfied with the staff during your stay?"
This gives an opportunity for the patient to address any nurses or staff members that they thought went above and beyond to make sure the service was good and this is important for us to address those who do well in their department.
Example of Situation:
When asking the patient if they feel included in their care plan they could say to me that they believe there doctor does not like them and that they are being very unresponsive to what the patient has concerns about this would be a situation that I need to address.
"I'm so sorry for your experience with your doctor during your stay. If you do not feel comfortable with your doctor I would be happy to address it but, if not, I would ask all your questions with a nurse or ask them to direct you towards another specialized doctor, towards your care, during your stay"
I would then direct the Nurse Manager of the floor and explain the situation, ask that this be confidential as the patient fears that their service will be jeopardized if the doctor finds out, and ask that some solution be found since this is going to affect the patients health if they do not feel comfortable communicating with the doctor how they are feeling in regards to their health.
My Personal Experience
This part of the internship helped me gain knowledge about medical terminology, communication skills, the inside details and service in the hospital, how departments are involved with the patients care, patience, how to properly handle concerns, and more. Furthermore, this part of my internship was the most rewarding because I felt like I was really helping the patients during their stay. My goal was to be someone that the patients could talk to because nurses and doctors are busy and have other big responsibilities while this was my one duty to take care of and if patients have a lonely life outside of their stay here and want to talk then I wanted to provide that service to them. From the survey its only a few questions but sometimes I could be in a room for 30 minutes just talking to the patients about anything.