Press Ganey plays important part in measuring patient experience

Texas Children’s Hospital recently was one of three pediatric hospitals invited by Press Ganey to present patient experience initiatives before an audience of approximately 100 hospital leaders from around the country. This is the first time Press Ganey has held a meeting devoted to patient and family experience at a pediatric hospital.

Dr. Larry Hollier, chief of Plastic Surgery and surgical director of the patient experience, and Lori Armstrong, senior vice president and chief nursing officer, discussed the initiatives that the Department of Surgery and Texas Children’s are implementing to improve the patient and family experience. They were joined by representatives from Boston Children’s Hospital and Nemours Children’s Hospital in Florida.

Press Ganey surveys are the tool Texas Children’s uses to discover what patients and their families experienced during their visit. Families are asked about their entire experience from making an appointment to being discharged.

Dr. James Merlino, president and chief medical officer of the Press Ganey Strategic Consulting Division, was an invited speaker at Texas Children’s Surgery Quality Improvement Conference and Pediatrics Grand Rounds in April. He spoke on current issues facing health care, factors that are important to patients and families, and strategies hospitals can implement to improve the patient experience.

A critical, yet simple, strategy to improve the patient experience that both Merlino and Hollier noted is for hospital employees to be aware of the importance of listening to a patient and family.

Hollier said the Department of Surgery will review Press Ganey survey results to determine the success of the projects implemented at Texas Children’s.

“We are now in the monitoring period to determine how well these initiatives are performing,” he said. “Feedback has been positive but we realize that there is always more that can be done to keep the patient as the focus of everything we do.”

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