Trend: Patients seeking resources on scheduling COVID-19 vaccine in satisfaction surveys

An analysis of patient comments in the first two months of 2021 shows a trend in patients seeking information on how to schedule a COVID vaccine. Compared to the last two months of 2020, there has been a 301% increase in the mention of vaccines in free text patient comments. A limited vaccine supply has caused distribution challenges and has left many vulnerable patients struggling to understand their next steps.

In December, SurveyVitals made a vaccine-specific question available as a part of the national COVID question set. Of the 20,000 patients who have responded to the question When available, will you get the COVID-19 vaccine?, 80.41% said “yes.” Your patients are likely to view you as a resource in helping them to schedule their vaccines. Patient comments such as “I need a vaccine! Where can I go?” and “I would like information on how I can get my vaccine” are growing in frequency on patient experience surveys.

Whether or not your practice is administering the COVID vaccine to patients, it may be a good idea to have information and resources available to address questions about getting the vaccine. Here are some best practices for supporting your patients during this time.

Ensure all staff understands current eligibility criteria and vaccine supply in your state. Have a system in place to educate all staff on any changes in these criteria.

If your practice is administering the vaccine, make scheduling instructions available to patients. Ensure patients are aware of any proof of eligibility that is required in order to receive the vaccine. If patients schedule their vaccines through a patient portal, provide instructions on how to sign up and log in.

If your practice is not administering the vaccine, provide resources to external information where they can learn more. These may include links to state and health district websites, or any local phones lines that have been set up for vaccine questions.

Follow up on patient questions. If the patient reaches out with questions related to vaccine scheduling or eligibility, provide any information and resources you can–even if you are not able to schedule a vaccine for that patient.

Provide consistent information. Create scripts, handouts, or response templates for discussing vaccine scheduling and availability with patients. This ensures that all staff communicate the same information and reduces the risk of causing confusion.

Include information on your website and have resources available for patients at your practice for better visibility.

Show empathy to patients who are experiencing challenges with getting their vaccines. Your concern and willingness to help may positively influence patient perceptions surrounding access and confidence and trust within the community.

Utilize your comment keyword search to find out if vaccine questions are trending among your patient population. Enabling alerts and the Contact Me feature can bring these concerns to your attention promptly so you can act quickly to help your patients.

SurveyVitals makes it easy to capture patient feedback, and with real-time, actionable insights understand your patient experience. Schedule a demo to learn more.

Hope McCain March 17th, 2021 Categories: Best Practices, COVID-19, featured, Patient Experience

Tags: best practices, comment analysis, communication, coronavirus, covid-19, patient comments, patient experience, vaccine

MIPS Improvement Activities Best Practices

Clinicians and groups participating in the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) must earn 40 points for Improvement Activities (IA) in order to receive full credit for the IA performance category. High-weighted activities are worth 20 points, while medium-weighted activities are worth 10 points. Participants with special status will receive double points for each activity completed.

Participants must be engaged in their chosen Improvement Activities for a continuous 90 days during the MIPS performance year. At least 50% of clinicians reporting as a group must participate in the same activity in order to earn credit.

SurveyVitals data can be used to support fulfillment of seven different Improvement Activities, two of which are high-weighted. For attestation, SurveyVitals recommends certain best practices during the 90 day performance period.

Have a plan. Mapping out activities and determining your 90-day performance period ahead of time will ensure you are ready for attestation when the performance year ends. Choosing a performance period prior to the fourth quarter will allow time for completion of necessary documentation.

Identify participating clinicians and keep an updated roster. Make sure all of your participating clinicians have SV access, and turn on and utilize pertinent features such as alerts, Improvement Center, etc.

Enable any pertinent SurveyVitals addendum questions. Your client success manager can help to add demographics and access questions to your core survey.

Include unique case identifiers in your uploads. This will be helpful should you wish to correlate your survey scores back to your clinical data and/or other metrics.

Document meetings and trainings where patient experience data is incorporated. Keep meeting minutes and attendance sheets.

Establish policies and procedures. Outline the purpose and intent of your chosen activity, as well as any associated actions you plan to take in support of the activity.

Identify champions. Choose an individual to own the activity and ensure tasks supporting the activity are completed.

Access your data and reports. Utilize your SurveyVitals data, including provider scorecards and reports from the Report Builder, in your supporting documentation. Raw data download and user engagement metrics are also available.

Interested in learning more about how SurveyVitals can help you succeed with MIPS? Learn more on our MIPS page or schedule a demo.

Hope McCain March 11th, 2021 Categories: Best Practices, MIPS Information

Tags: best practices, improvement activities, MIPS, QPP, quality payment program

Tips to Ease Telehealth Wait Time Concerns

Wait times have long been a common concern for patients at office-based medical appointments. When telehealth skyrocketed in popularity last year, it became clear that wait times are even more of a frustration for patients during virtual visits.

The numbers show wait times are the biggest pain point for patients who use telehealth. While the national composite mean for wait times during in-person visits in 2020 was 4.79, it was only 4.51 for virtual visits. Although virtual visits offer convenience and can be done from the comfort of the patient’s own home, wait times cannot be ignored.

The American Medical Association says health professionals are seeing 50-175 times the number of patients through telehealth as they did prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because this growth was sudden and unexpected, healthcare providers and organizations are having to learn and adjust processes as they go. Delays are inevitable, but for the patient, this can be exceptionally stressful; after all, during a virtual visit there is no one nearby who can keep them informed of their wait.

In this case, communicating with your patients up front and providing clear instructions for virtual visits is the best possible way to ease wait time frustrations. Since many patients are new to telehealth, sending an email with detailed instructions or providing a link to the information on your website prior to the scheduled visit is ideal.

Required Equipment

Inform the patient of the equipment or devices (including system requirements) that can be used for their visit.

Logging In

An analysis of patient comments on our Telehealth Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire showed nearly 27% of patients had trouble logging in or connecting to their telehealth visit.

Provide instructions on where and how the patient will log into their visit. If a username and password are required, ensure the patient understands how to set up an account if they don’t already have one. Encourage your patients to log on for their visit 10-15 minutes early in the event they have connectivity issues.

Email Links

If your practice emails a link to the patient to join the visit, tell the patient how long prior to their appointment time they can expect to receive the link. When sending links, always double-check the patient’s email address at the time of scheduling.

Direct Phone Calls

If the provider will call the patient directly, double-check the patient’s phone number at the time of scheduling. As with email, notify the patient of the approximate time their provider will be calling. When possible, let the patient know what number the provider will be calling from.

Troubleshooting

Provide the patient with troubleshooting FAQs for common connection issues.

Delays

While it may not be feasible to provide updates to the patient during their wait, it’s a good idea to set an expectation for the amount of time the patient may have to wait after their appointment start time. Provide information on who they should contact in the event their wait lasts longer than a specified amount of time, such as 15 minutes.

By proactively communicating to all patients about common setbacks and causes for delays, the efficiency of your virtual visits may increase and positively impact wait times.

Learn More

SurveyVitals offers a Telehealth Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire to gather feedback from your patients on their virtual visit experiences with your practice. Learn more here or sign up for a demo.

Hope McCain February 17th, 2021 Categories: Best Practices, COVID-19, featured, Outpatient Practice, Patient Experience, Telehealth

Tags: best practices, office-based, outpatient, patient comments, patient experience, Patient feedback, Patient Satisfaction, telehealth, virtual care, virtual visits, wait times

Four Ways Reception Affects the Patient Experience

When measuring the patient experience, it’s important not only to examine the doctor-patient relationship and interactions with clinical staff, but also where it all begins: at reception.

Although front desk staff aren’t treating patients, their role in the patient experience is critical. It’s so important, in fact, that a patient may switch doctors simply because of a negative interaction during check-in. Concerns with reception may also lead to negative online reviews and may even increase the risk of malpractice suits.

Reception and the patient experience

There are four ways in which reception at your practice has a significant impact on the patient experience.

Reception is the patient’s first impression of your practice

Check-in sets the tone for the patient’s entire visit. The prompt greeting and nonverbal communication of the front desk staff are vital to conveying value to the patient. This is the first opportunity to make the patient feel like their needs come first.

During check-in, the patient may also form opinions about the efficiency and professionalism of your practice. This first impression is difficult to negate, even if the patient is extremely satisfied with their provider.

Reception is a hotspot for privacy concerns

Discussing patient information too loudly or in too public of an area may cause privacy concerns. If a patient feels like their privacy is violated during check-in, they may continue to worry about privacy throughout their visit and during their time with the provider. Respecting privacy at the front desk demonstrates the level of commitment your practice as a whole has toward privacy and security.

Reception impacts patient perceptions of wait times

Though a long wait time may not be the fault of the front desk staff, patients often perceive excessive wait times to be related to reception. Front desk staff can help to ease wait time frustrations by greeting patients promptly at check-in and providing regular updates when wait times are high.

Reception affects perceived access to care

When a patient can’t reach someone by phone to schedule an appointment or is given incorrect information about an appointment, they consider these concerns when rating their overall experience. If another practice is more accessible, they may choose to leave.

What can you do?

These five simple best practices can go a long way in improving the patient’s experience during check-in.

Greet the patient promptly with a smile when they approach the check-in area; if all staff are with other patients, acknowledge each patient who enters and explain they will be helped as soon as possible
Speak softly when discussing the patient’s personal information
Use warm nonverbal communication: smile, maintain eye contact, and speak with a gentle tone of voice
Display empathy toward the patient; remember they are in a vulnerable position
Check in with the patient and provide updates when wait times are longer than expected

The Reception question group on the Standard Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (SPSQ) gives you insights into your patients’ attitudes toward your front desk staff. Dive even deeper with comment sentiment analysis to learn about specific pain points for your patients.

The Improvement Center also contains a variety of resources targeted toward Reception best practices.

Ready to learn more? Sign up for a demo today.

Hope McCain February 12th, 2021 Categories: Best Practices, Outpatient Practice, Patient Experience

Tags: best practices, office-based, outpatient, patient experience, privacy, quality improvement, reception, wait times

Test Results via the Patient Portal: Best Practices

A common concern expressed by patients is the communication of test results. Many medical practices have turned to patient portals to alleviate these concerns. Patient portals are now responsible for communicating with many of the 1-2 million patients being tested for COVID-19 every day in the US. The patient portal can be a great tool when it is used with the patients’ best interests in mind.

Using our comment analysis tools, we identified the most common concerns expressed by patients in regards to portal test results. Here are the biggest challenges and best practices to maximize the benefits of communicating test results to patients.

Patients don’t know how to use the portal

Your patients may not know how to access or log into your patient portal, or they may not know how to navigate it to find their test results. At the time of the visit, it’s important to provide the patient with clear, detailed instructions for accessing and using the portal.

If feasible, consider inviting the patient to set up their portal account during their visit so you can assist with any questions that arise. Offering instruction cards or flyers might aid in suggesting portal account setup to your patients.

Expectations are not met

It’s important to set and meet expectations when it comes to communicating test results via the patient portal.

First, ensure your patient knows their test results will be uploaded to the portal. If the patient assumes they will be receiving a phone call, they may not think to check online.

Next, give the patient a realistic timeframe for uploading their results. A common complaint from patients in regards to online test results is that they are not uploaded as promptly as they had expected. A recent survey found that viewing test results is among the top reasons patients utilize the portal in the first place. When the patient doesn’t see their test results online within an expected timeframe, this could lower their confidence in the reliability of the patient portal.

Finally, be consistent when uploading test results to the portal. If the patient finds their test results on the portal in some instances and not others, they may discontinue use of the portal for this purpose altogether.

The portal is your only method of communication

The portal is a great tool for communicating test results in a more timely manner. It is possible the patient will need help interpreting the results or will have questions about next steps and treatment. It’s important to follow up with the patient verbally or to provide clear next steps and information about who they can reach out to with questions.

If you are communicating test results via a portal, take the time to understand what is working and what isn’t. Run a report with the Report Builder in your SurveyVitals portal and search the comments for terms such as ‘portal’ or ‘test results’ to gather key patient insights. You can also add addendum questions to your surveys for further insights; reach out to your Client Success Manager for more information.

Interested to learn more about SurveyVitals? Request more information here.

Hope McCain February 1st, 2021 Categories: Best Practices, COVID-19, Outpatient Practice, Patient Experience

Tags: best practices, comment analysis, communication, Improvement, outpatient, patient comments, patient experience, patient portal, Patient Satisfaction, quality improvement, sentiment analysis, test results

Patient Experience Week Winners!

April 22-26 was Patient Experience Week and to celebrate, we asked our clients to share what drives them to provide memorable patient care. Those who responded were eligible to win an Amazon gift card. We’re excited to announce the winners of the giveaway and to share what motivates and inspires them to provide an exceptional patient experience!

We asked: It's Patient Experience Week! Tell us what inspires you to work every day to provide amazing care to your patients.

Grand Prize Winner: Clint Allred, CRNA, Anesthesia Associates of Boise

“I work at a fairly average sized hospital with ten operating rooms in which we do all kinds of surgeries and care for all types of patients. It is a job that is always moving and often requires stretching of one’s abilities clinically and also professionally within our anesthesia group. Sometimes amidst the day to day providing of anesthesia, combined with the complexity of hospital bureaucracy, the patient and their experience can sometimes be forgotten. At some point in all of our careers, we got into the medical field because of our desire to care for other people. For some that motivation is fast forgotten and never found again. For me growing up, it was my younger brother who instilled this desire in me. He had serious handicaps and spent a lot of his life in and out of hospitals. Our experience was so dependent on those caring for him, for better or worse, those providers served as the rudder for our interactions with healthcare. I wanted to have a strong and helpful influence so that others could have their burden lightened.

Recently, my eight year old son had his tonsils removed. This is a very routine case, millions are done each year, and I provide the anesthesia for 6-8 of these types of cases at least once a week in our practice. The anesthetic for this case has become routine and mundane for me personally. All of a sudden I was thrust onto the other side of the experience. There my son laid on the gurney getting prepped for surgery. I saw him run the gamut of emotions; fear, anxiety, apprehension, concern...etc. All of a sudden those emotions of why I went into medicine came flooding back. I realized that the way I interacted with patients would leave a lasting impact on them. Clinically I have always provided my best care and effort, but I saw through my boy's eyes that I could do more and be more as a clinician. My son received incredible care and has since healed from his physical incisions, but the experience he had prior to surgery has had a far greater impact.

It is this message that inspires me to provide amazing care to my patients. No matter how routine or regular a procedure is to me, I remember that experience and hold strong to the fact that it is not routine for the patient on the stretcher.”

Alexis Haney, RN, USAP

“To be a caring voice to a person who didn't wake up wanting to be sick or have surgery. Everyday, I partner with SurveyVitals because in the background, almost every patient is given a chance to have a voice. I am that individual that gets to read their thoughts, their frustrations, their fears. I am able to offer them a chance to make a difference when they are in a position where they feel they have little control. When a patient requests to be called back... I can be the caring voice on the other end and I can convey to them I really do care, perhaps that will make them feel a little better and perhaps I can make a change or help their concern because USAP cares and wants to be better and that why I am inspired to provide amazing care and support to patients.”

Tina Eide, MD, Matrix Anesthesia

“Anesthesia is a tricky job, because everything is fine until it’s really not fine. It requires constant vigilance and care, even when I show up feeling less than 100%. On these days, I look to my patients for energy and strength, because I know they are relying on me for the same. I love learning about their careers, seeing pictures of their children and pets, hearing their songs they belt out (people love singing to me!), and listening to their stories that brought them to surgery. I’ve met musicians, politicians, hospital administrators, teachers, circus performers, professional athletes, prima ballerinas, and so very many people who have interesting stories. Because we often cannot share details of our patients with our families or friends, I hold these private encounters with special regard.”

Rhina Romera, Envision Healthcare

“Working in healthcare makes a difference in people's lives. Caring for people and helping others lead healthy lives is satisfying and important. I love humankind and it is gratifying to me to make a positive impact not just on patients but everyone involved. No one likes to be ill, so it is very important to me that patients feel that they are treated with compassion and respect.”

Sarah Russell, FNP, Wellspring Health Services

“The one thing that inspires me the most to provide excellent care is when patients follow up and start feeling so much better! I have also had patients tell me that for the first time they felt like a provider actually listened to them and cared about their story and their health. Oftentimes a patient's story will give the clues to their disease processes and struggles and be the beginning of the answer in leading them back to health. Without listening to the patient, it is often a matter of just cold medicine treatment that can leave the patient sicker rather than better.”

Anne LeBlanc, USAP

“For us providers, our days can often seem routine. Remembering that for our patients, surgery is often a very scary and powerless position to be in. Connecting with the patient and family in the preoperative area and forming a trustworthy bond is one of the most inspiring and valuable parts of our job. Being able to relieve some of that anxiety and comfort them in their time of fear is incredibly rewarding and inspiring for me.”

Thank you to all of our clients who took the time to share their stories! We admire your dedication to the patient experience.

blake May 23rd, 2019 Categories: Anesthesia, Best Practices, Client Spotlight, Outpatient Practice, Patient Experience

Tags: best practices, Improvement, Our Clients, patient experience, Patient feedback, Patient Satisfaction

Trend: Patients seeking resources on scheduling COVID-19 vaccine in satisfaction surveys

MIPS Improvement Activities Best Practices