Sacred Heart Hospital - Eau Claire, WI

Summit Award Winner: Inpatient

Sacred Heart Hospital’s successful patient satisfaction initiative began with an inpatient baseline in the 87^th percentile. Although some organizations may be content with this percentile, Sacred Heart Hospital’s leadership, physicians, and employees believed they had the aptitude and innovation to create a distinguished climate of service excellence. Since excellent service and patient satisfaction have been shown to contribute to a positive healing environment that supports improved clinical outcomes and recovery times, they built a nationally recognized program to better serve their patients.

Eight service quality and customer satisfaction teams were commissioned to develop a structure and plan for improving patient satisfaction and operational performance. Teams succeeded in creating sustained results and a hard-wired culture of service that was responsive to patients’ needs, feelings, and experiences. The initiative resulted in a twelve point increase in patient satisfaction scores to the 99^th percentile, an accomplishment sustained for nine consecutive quarters. As a result, Sacred Heart Hospital received national recognition and awards for innovations.

Teams carefully analyzed Press Ganey survey results, established goals, and rolled out innovative service improvements utilizing process improvement strategies. Performance measures were then evaluated to fine-tune the following improvements:

• Patient and employee rounding
• Creating clear behavioral standards linked to mission and core values
• Investing in leadership development and employee training
• Introducing a service recovery “toolbox”
• Implementing discharge follow-up phone calls

Press Ganey data proved an extremely useful and precise measurement tool. Patients were surveyed with eighty specific questions and comment areas. The Press Ganey Priority Index focused the teams on key service areas. Extensive internal weekly reports and process outcome data helped identify areas of need, evaluate the success of service improvements, and measure overall progress. Actionable steps included:

• January 1999—Launch of eight service quality/customer satisfaction teams and development of charters, goals, and tasks.
• April 1999—Began surveying patients with Press Ganey.
• January 2000—Teams launch service improvement projects, trainings, and monitored metrics to identify areas of need, and measured success.
• December 2002—The 95^th percentile was reached and a new 99^th percentile goal was set.
• September 2004—Follow-up employee opinion survey conducted.

Sacred Heart Hospital teams used the first three quarters of data from 1999 to establish a “baseline” percentile of 87. Once the baseline was established, a goal was set to reach the 95^th percentile. When the 95^th percentile goal was achieved, a new goal was set for the 99^th percentile and additional process improvement projects were implemented. The second goal was achieved in the second quarter of 2003.