Nevertheless, health systems juggling multiple challenges often lack the resources to focus on increasing patient satisfaction. Acknowledging this problem, The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) published “Why Improve Patient Experience,” citing multiple studies to make compelling clinical and business cases for the value of prioritizing this critical component of an effective Quality program.[2] Among the business benefits, it notes that patient experience is linked with key financial indicators, such as patient loyalty and a lower medical malpractice risk. Given the clinical staffing shortage crisis, it is equally important to consider that this data demonstrates how improving patient experience produces higher employee satisfaction and reduced clinician turnover.
Although many factors may inspire a proactive approach to patient experience—AHRQ credits the public reporting of HCAHPS patient satisfaction survey scores and initiatives to include patient experience measures in performance-based clinician compensation programs, among other factors—embarking on a corrective path requires continuous data collection and meaningful feedback. It is difficult to change behavior and processes without evidence to support the need for improvement. AHRQ noted that patient experience metrics can also help identify critical system issues, such as delays in testing and broader quality and safety gaps.
These challenges may be further compounded when hospitals employ their own clinical staff in certain medical specialties. For example, hospitals that have moved to internal employment models for their anesthesia services may struggle with collecting, interpreting, reporting, and/or acting on patient anesthesia experience feedback. Historically, because patients’ brief relationships with anesthesia teams are limited to the perioperative suite, getting patients to complete anesthesia satisfaction surveys can be difficult. For hospitals in these situations, leveraging the technology and expertise of an experienced service provider partner can offer an effective solution.
Creating a data-driven path to better patient experiences
North American Partners in Anesthesia (NAPA), the nation’s largest single-specialty anesthesia services management company, developed NAPA Managed Services to empower hospitals with employed anesthesia teams to access NAPA’s industry-leading people and processes in revenue cycle, quality, HR strategy, operational efficiency, and payor strategy, independent of NAPA’s clinical services. While hospitals may choose from three levels of Managed Services Quality options, all levels include NAPA’s proprietary Patient Anesthesia Experience Program—an innovative approach with state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business Intelligence (BI) tools to capture data, including actual patient feedback, and to generate meaningful insights.
Patient Anesthesia Experience utilizes NAPA’s sophisticated Data Labs to create change management that drives better patient care. Seeking to enhance their existing survey process, NAPA’s QI and Business Technologies teams partnered with a leading patient feedback and engagement platform to create a best-in-class process for NAPA’s anesthesia-specific patient experience survey. The survey is designed to capture patient comments and produce actionable data that can be shared with NAPA’s client facilities to enhance their reimbursement reporting and support local patient experience initiatives. NAPA Managed Services clients may also opt to have patient feedback sent directly to their executive leadership and anesthesia chiefs to prompt responsive communication with the patient when concerns arise, mitigating risk and facilitating better outcomes.
Leo Penzi, MD, NAPA EVP and Chief Medical Officer, says, “Personal patient feedback complements clinical data by providing insight into how patients perceive their level of care. The feedback that clinicians receive from their patients delivers valuable insight on their human interactions and drives improvement in the patient experience.”
A Commitment to Quality
NAPA has long been recognized as a Quality leader and this dedicated approach to patient experience is consistent with its patient-first philosophy. Over nearly four decades, NAPA has built a widely respected Quality Improvement (QI) team, maintained one of the nation’s largest anesthesia patient outcomes database, established the NAPA Anesthesia Patient Safety Institute (NAPSI)—one of only 115 federally listed Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs)—developed cutting-edge QI data and analytics tools, created patient safety initiatives that have been published as CMS MIPS measures, and pioneered training programs to help its clinicians build safety-focused cultures and engage more compassionately with patients. In 2022 and 2023, NAPSI won the highest national patient safety and quality awards from The Joint Commission/National Quality Forum and the American Society for Health Care Risk Management (ASHRM), respectively, for their Anesthesia Risk Alerts Program.
While hospital executives often think of managed services in terms of administrative and financial functions, Rhett Lankford, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the NAPA Managed Services Business Unit, believes that including Quality elements is critical to helping hospitals thrive. “Patient experience adds value—particularly in value-based care environments. Improving patient experience generates better outcomes and turns patients into brand ambassadors. High satisfaction is good for patients and providers, and that’s good for our hospital partners,” says Lankford.
References
[1] Doyle C, Lennox L, Bell DA systematic review of evidence on the links between patient experience and clinical safety and effectiveness. BMJ Open 2013;3:e001570. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2012-001570
[2] Section 2: Why improve patient experience? | Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (n.d.). https://www.ahrq.gov/cahps/quality-improvement/improvement-guide/2-why-improve/index.html
