Did you know? Your patients are rating the time they spend with you
 
 

Patient experience is defined by the Beryl Institute as, “the sum of all interactions shaped by an organization’s culture, that influence patient perceptions across the continuum of care.” UT Health San Antonio adopted this concept in 2016 and it is what drives our culture and the experience we provide to our patients. UT Health San Antonio receives hundreds of surveys from our patients every day. The insights they provide help us find ways to improve our practice and help us measure our success in providing an exceptional patient experience, every time.

 

UT Health San Antonio’s patient experience goal for every location and every provider is for our patients to rate us as 95.7% or above for Likelihood to Recommend, which would place us in the 80th percentile of similar organizations nationally. Our current score for Likelihood to Recommend is 94.2%. 

 

Your patients can complete a survey every 90 days after having an appointment at any of our locations. Surveys are sent by SMS text or email, which is why it is important to always verify your patient’s mobile phone number and email address.

 

How are surveys facilitated and what do they ask?

 

Surveys are sent out and collected by a company called Press Ganey, who is the industry leader in patient experience surveys.

 

Here is an example of the questions your patients are answering regarding the care and experience they receive. Using a Likert scale, patients rate each question between 1 and 5 and can also type in personal comments for each question.

  • Access
    • Ease of scheduling your appointment
    • Ease of contacting us
  • Moving through your visit
    • Degree to which you were informed about delays
    • Wait time in clinic from arriving to leaving
  • Nurse/assistant
    • How well the nurse or assistant listened to you
    • The concern the nurse or assistant showed for your problem
  • Care provider
    • The concern the care provider showed for your questions or worries
    • The explanation the care provider gave you about your problem or condition
    • The care provider’s efforts to include you in decisions about your care
    • The care provider’s discussion of any proposed treatment
    • Likelihood of recommending this care provider to others
  • Personal issues
    • Our concern for your privacy
    • How well the staff protected your safety
  • Overall assessment
    • How well the staff worked together to care for you
    • Likelihood of recommending our practice to others

Their answers to these questions provide valuable insight about our patient’s perspective. Results are used to identify best practices, celebrate successes as well as identify areas for improvement.

 

Survey scores and comments are available and can be shared to your clinic daily, weekly and monthly so we all will know what our patients are feeling and what they need. 

 

There are three key driver questions that lead a patient rating our clinics as a “5” in the “likely to recommend” domain:

  • The concern the care provider showed for your questions or worries
  • The care provider’s efforts to include you in decisions about your care
  • How well the staff worked together to care for you

 

Why do our surveys matter?

 

Patient surveys give us insight on the future growth of our organization. The likelihood of recommending our practice to others is what’s called a “net promoter question.”  How your patients rate us on that question is an indicator of growth for UT Health San Antonio. If a patient is likely to recommend us, this means they will return for other visits and they will share their experiences and recommend us to their friends and family. Our organizational goal is for patients to rate us an average of 95.7% or higher for this particular question.

 

Our goals and priorities

 

Our priority is to provide an exceptional experience for every patient, every time. And, we understand that providing exceptional experiences for you, our frontline providers and staff, results in an exceptional experience for our patients. This does not mean “satisfying” every patient’s request.  Providing an exceptional experience also means communicating, explaining, and providing options. 

 

Our goal is to understand our patients needs and provide solutions. When they come to see us, they may be at their worst, so we need to be at our best. It’s important to understand our patients’ needs and provide solutions. As Maya Angelou said, "a patient may forget what we said or what we did, but they will never forget how we made them feel."

 

Your patients’ surveys impact improvements we’re making in clinical workflows which ultimately leads to better health outcomes for our patients, and an overall culture of success at UT Health San Antonio.

 

Questions?

 

Your patient experience champions and leaders are here to help. Should you have any questions regarding the program, JoAnn Rios or Mary Salazar, DNP are always happy to help.