Overview
CORE provides Providence Health & Services with studies and reports that represent the voices of our customers: employers/purchasers, insurance brokers, health plan members, hospital patients, primary care patients and behavioral health patients. In addition, we assess quality of care from the perspectives of physicians and employees to gain further insights into how we can improve our services. These satisfaction surveys represent the responses of tens of thousands of voices throughout our facilities in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California, forming a rich database that guides the health system in its efforts to be responsive to the needs of its customers. In 2004, two projects exemplified this work:
End-of-life survey
Providence does not send its regular inpatient satisfaction survey to the families of patients who die in our facilities, because the topics addressed are not appropriate under these circumstances. Instead, Providence sends these families an end-of-life survey approximately eight weeks after the patient’s death. This survey program is the first consistent, systematic effort to invite these families to comment on their experiences and share their stories. The survey is not simply an exercise in soliciting feedback — it is an important tool for gathering information that can lead to improvements in the way we care for the 1,300 or more patients who die in our Portland-area hospitals each year. The original family satisfaction survey was implemented in September 2001. In 2004, it was updated and a revised survey was implemented. Several Providence hospitals outside of Portland now also use this survey, increasing our opportunities to learn from each other and to share best practices. Results have been shared with key Providence audiences, including members of the Excellence in End of Life Steering Committee, Quality Councils, Medical Executive Committees, and others interested in understanding and improving the quality of inpatient care at the end of life. Quarterly results are posted on the Providence intranet and are sent to a wide distribution list. Based on the results of the family survey, a number of quality-improvement efforts have been initiated around the Portland service area. For example, in response to low scores for physician communication, the ICU at Providence Portland Medical Center has started including families on patient rounds, providing a phone calls and offering pagers for family members who want to be notified immediately of any change in their loved one's condition. To address low scores in providing families information about the dying process, an informative and tasteful brochure is now available to help prepare families for some of the physiological changes that occur toward the end of life. In addition, the Pastoral Care department at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center used the survey to measure the impact of providing night-shift chaplains, rather than rotating this responsibility among day-shift chaplains. 24-hour chaplain services were always provided, but the service used to be provided by day shift chaplains and now we have dedicated night shift chaplains so there is more consistency of which chaplains are working with which patients when.
Employee survey
CORE manages all aspects of the annual employee survey in all four Providence regions – Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington. This survey is being used increasingly to promote service excellence, to monitor our changing culture with regard to diversity and patient safety, to maintain momentum in our effort to become the employer of choice, and to ensure that the organization maintains its focus on its mission while undergoing changes. Response rates to the survey have climbed consistently for the past five years, with more than two-thirds of employees participating and sharing their opinions. Managers have been given the responsibility and tools to make changes based on survey feedback. These changes help support Providence’s continuing effort to be the employer of choice.
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