The Bürgerhospital and Clementine Children’s Hospital in Frankfurt am Main is one of the larger hospitals in Germany with more than 20,000 treated patients. It has 14 departments, including the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, a surgical clinic, and Internal Medicine. The merger with the Bürgerhospital Clementine Children’s Hospital in 2009 further expanded the specialization in pediatric and youth medicine. Currently, more than 1,000 employees are concerned with the well-being of the patients and provide the best possible care, day by day.
Patient Surveys: Between Tradition and Digitalisation
Established in 1779, the Bürgerhospital has a rich history of providing patient care. Ensuring patient satisfaction has always been a top priority for the healthcare provider. The staff do not only aim for optimal medical treatment, but also actively involve patients in making decisions about their care and support. Continuous measurements and evaluations of patient satisfaction play a crucial role for this patient-inclusive strategy. So far, the measurements have been conducted in-house and manually using paper questionnaires. However, the evaluations proved to be very time- and resource-intensive. Hence, the Bürgerhospital contacted Spectos in order to deploy a modern, completely digital multi–channel approach for carrying out ongoing patient satisfaction surveys.
How to Effectively Improve Patient Experience through Satisfaction Surveys
Based on the clinic’s requirements, Spectos adjusted its services to their specific needs by designing the survey questionnaire, offering different options for conducting the survey as well as providing standardized evaluation methods and pinpointing areas for improvement.
The survey covers a wide range of topics and breaks down the general satisfaction with the healthcare provider based on various aspects of clinic life or processes. This includes admission, medical care, quality of care, personal treatment by staff, cleanliness, and the selection and quality of food. Patients can access the digital survey from various devices using a QR code. The ease of access through smartphones or tablets provided by the healthcare facility increases the patients’ willingness to participate. This results in a greater amount of valuable data, which in turn provides a high level of reliability for the results.
The responses from the mobile patient survey are available in real-time and can be viewed in the web-based Spectos Real-Time Performance Management™ Suite. The evaluations of the patient satisfaction surveys are carried out centrally and automatically on the platform. One click is enough to make them available for the clinic staff to view. The results are displayed in clear statistics that can be filtered explicitly by specific categories. At the same time, an easily accessible portfolio analysis in the Cockpit highlights strengths and improvement potentials for the surveyed areas.
Every Feedback Matters: Healthcare Surveys that Include Everyone
The clinic wants to ensure everyone’s satisfaction and will reach out to all of its patients with the survey, both adults and children. Thus, the patient survey has been extended to Pediatrics. Separate questionnaires were created specifically to address the clinic’s everyday life for children and their guardians in a sensitive manner.
Additionally, the hospital is committed to being culturally sensitive to the diverse population of Frankfurt. Therefore, the questionnaires have been translated into eight additional languages, such as English, Spanish, Polish, and Turkish, to reflect this.
Evaluations at the Push of a Button: Real-Time Insights Into Patient Satisfaction at Bürgerhospital Frankfurt
Patients can actively participate in shaping day-to-day operations at Bürgerhospital and Clementine Children’s Hospital thanks to ongoing patient satisfaction surveys. A responsible handling of quality and feedback makes the patients feel appreciated and valued. At the same time, it provides the hospital with important incentives to sustainably improve their service quality in the long run. With the help of the Spectos Real-Time Performance Management™ Suite, responses can be evaluated in real-time and internal optimization measures can be derived in a timely manner by digitizing the feedback process. As part of a continuous improvement of their service quality, these measures can be managed efficiently and comprehensively. For instance, it enabled the implementation of important steps to reduce wait times and targeted actions to improve hygiene. Senior staff can view patient feedback transparently at any time and on a daily basis, and it is regularly evaluated in interprofessional quality circles. This way, Bürgerhospital Frankfurt actively and continuously works to ensure the satisfaction of its patients.
