IWK A Model for Continuous Improvement through On-going Patient Feedback

About IWK

Located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the IWK Health Centre provides quality care to women, children, youth and families in the three Maritime Provinces and beyond. As a tertiary care health centre dedicated to education, research, family centred care and health promotion, the IWK proudly promotes a mission to make a difference in the well being of women, children, youth and families; bring together care, research, teaching and advocacy for best results and to be global leaders in research and knowledge transfer.  First and foremost, its staff, volunteers and partners are committed to the vision “Healthy Families.  The Best Care”.

Survey Process

IWK has developed a comprehensive, organization-wide process to measure patient satisfaction—one that takes into account the unique needs of each care team and service area within the hospital. As a result, IWK has developed 16 separate questionnaires for both in and out-patient services, designed to provide each team with the feedback information they need to improve the quality of care. Although there are separate questionnaires, a common set of generic indicators are used for corporate benchmarking across the organization.

IWK’s survey process is on-going as each questionnaire is administered on a semi-annual basis according to a pre-defined schedule. Questionnaires are mailed to in-patients following discharge and handed out to clinic patients. Prior consent is obtained from patients to ensure conformity to privacy legislation. Respondents complete the survey and return it using the pre-paid return envelope. A part-time employee coordinates the questionnaire development, printing, mailing, data entry and reporting in the Androfact system.

Annually, IWK distributes approximately 7,000 questionnaires and conducts about 30 survey waves for all its questionnaires. Overall response rates range between 25%-50% providing statistically reliable data for comparative and tracking purposes.

Reporting & Sharing Results

A critical component to any feedback program is effective statistical analysis and sharing of results across the organization in a timely and transparent manner. At IWK, survey results are analysed thoroughly using Androfact’s powerful analytical and reporting capabilities. Reports are sent to the VP Patient Care, Directors, Managers and Quality Improvement Coordinators as well as team leaders and front-line staff.

These reports provide management and care teams with easy-to-understand and actionable information and verbatim comments upon which improvement initiatives are derived. Surveys also offer IWK with an effective means to follow up on complaints and provide a voice for patients to be heard.

Improvement Initiatives

The ultimate outcome of any patient survey should be improved care. IWK has witnessed significant improvements in many areas of the organization since it has implemented its continuous surveying program. Enhanced breast-feeding education for all maternal-newborn staff, improved signage across the health centre and better housekeeping practices are just a few examples where improvements have been made.

In-House Benefits

Increasingly, like many healthcare organizations, IWK has chosen an “in-house” method to patient surveying. As such, it manages the entire process from end to end. This self-managed approach provides numerous advantages:

• Ownership of process
• Better control over privacy issues
• Ability to capture feedback “close to moment of experience”
• Trending
• Flexibility
• Reduced cost

Another benefit of using this technology is its versatility and capability to conduct point-in-time, in-house surveys of the staff and physician population. The IWK has used the Androfact technology to conduct both Web-based and paper based customized surveys to seek staff/physician input on various issues and plan to use this more in the future to seek their input into a number of key strategic issues.

Androfact: The Tool of Choice

Androfact provides the enabling technology that streamlines the entire feedback process making it the tool of choice for IWK. Androfact offers many advantages:

• Validated question banks
• Multi-language questionnaires
• Multi-modes for data collection (paper, web, kiosk, handheld device)
• Enhanced reporting capabilities (timely, on-line, statistical analysisfeatures)Benchmarking

 

Visit the Knowledge Centre to read or download the full IWK Case Study.