Lawrence General Launches New Patient Experience Survey

Lawrence General hospital is excited to give patients an easier way to provide feedback after a service visit. On January 1, Lawrence General launched a new patient surveying platform that will provide the traditional paper surveys to a number of patients, but also adds voice-prompted phone, email, and texting versions of a shorter, more focused survey. 

Using this new system, we will be able to survey 100 percent of patients and improve our overall volume and rate of responses. As we know, patient feedback can fuel important improvements in our care process. In addition, the new surveying system is likely to give us feedback much faster than the old “paper only” system, in days or even hours, as compared to months with the old system. 

The new system will provide a tighter communication loop between the hospital and its patients, giving managers important automated reports in both inpatient and outpatient areas, and allowing for timely service recovery and clinical follow up, if needed. 

The new system converts patient responses to a five-star rating system that mirrors other rating systems our consumers are used to. Posting this rating system on our website will give patients another way to assess Lawrence General as a choice for their care. The survey will also ask them if they would like to further engage by volunteering to be a patient advisor, while their patient experience fresh in their mind. 

“We know there is a strong relationship between patient experience and staff engagement,” observes Aideen Snell, MSW, performance improvement specialist, who is leading this transition. “By giving managers and staff access more timely and meaningful patient satisfaction data they can develop strategies that will improve the care experience for our patients. When patients recognize and comment on that satisfaction, it reinforces our efforts and makes our staff feel appreciated. That appreciation drives more positive experience, and so on!”

​The effectiveness of the new system relies upon Lawrence General having accurate contact information on every patient we see. Caregivers can help us be sure we have that information by checking phone and email contact information when registering patients or reviewing those records with patients.