How to Make Patient Feedback Actionable

One of the issues with patient experience measurement programs is actionability.  It may be interesting to know that interactions with nurses and doctors needs improvement, but what do we do about it? 

The J.D. Power Hospital Patient Satisfaction Program (HPSP) includes benchmarks and individual hospital measurement for key performance indicators (KPIs).  Our data scientists develop the KPIs by studying key moments of truth in the patient journey and looking for “breakpoints” in the experience where satisfaction drops dramatically. 

By identifying the breakpoint, we can understand: 

• What is the impact on satisfaction if we fail to meet the KPI? 
• How can we set our operational goals to avoid missing the KPI? 
• Should we focus on this KPI?  Is it an opportunity or are we already meeting it most of the time? 
• How do high performers compare on this KPI?  What does good look like? 

KPI Examples from the HPSP Benchmark 

J.D. Power has developed 15+ KPIs as part of the Hospital Patient Satisfaction benchmark.

Three of these KPIs are time related. For example:

One of the KPIs we uncovered is related to the amount time between when a patient arrives at the hospital and the time that they get to their room.  We determined that the breakpoint for this KPI is two hours. 

That means that patients are mostly satisfied with waiting up to two hours to get to their room.  However, for patients that have to wait more than two hours, satisfaction drops off dramatically.  In this case, we saw a 141 point decline in satisfaction on a 1,000 point scale between the two groups. 

A key point to note on this KPI is the low industry compliance.  High performing organizations typically achieve KPIs 85% to 90% of the time. For this KPI, only 51% of patients are reporting that their wait was less than two hours.  That means that most of the industry likely needs to focus on improving performance against this KPI. 

Another time related KPI we identified is related to the question of whether scheduled tests or procedures were performed on time.  Failing to meet this KPI has a significant impact on satisfaction with a 273 point gap between yes and no. 

Despite the large impact on satisfaction, we would advise most hospitals to look elsewhere for improvement. 

Why? 

Because of high industry compliance.  85% of patients in the HPSP benchmark say that their scheduled tests or procedures were performed on time.  To be sure, you will want to compare your hospital’s performance to the benchmark. 

Other Hospital Patient Satisfaction KPIs 

There are over a doezen additional Hospital Patient Satisfaction Program KPIs the include key moments of truth with the experience with nurses, doctors, test and procedures, facility and room, food, discharge and event the app and website. These KPIs provide actionable insight into key moments of truth across the entire patient experience. 

Download a preview of the KPIs here >>