Background 

An East coast community-based health system with 255 beds, more than 55,000 emergency department encounters, and over 9,000 annual admissions had consistent above-average patient satisfaction scores but fell short of top-percentile ranking. 

Goal

Implement a program to achieve and sustain top percentile ranking in patient satisfaction 

Strategy/Key Initiatives 

• Engage patients within 24-48 hours of being discharged, allowing for reinforcement of important information including recommended therapies or filling prescriptions 
• Implement processes to alert hospital staff to possible issues in real-time to minimize the potential for readmissions 
• Improve data analysis with single-point ownership of identifying, engaging, tracking, and resolving clinical and service issues. 

HCAHPS & Post-Discharge Patient Scores

Three months after program launch, the hospital saw increases in all reported HCAHPS domains. 

HCAHPS Results 

When comparing patient scores between those who engaged post-discharge vs those who were not, engaged patients had increased scores across all reported domains.  

Patient Scores