NRC Picker and ARAMARK Healthcare Collaborate to Develop a Question Set Designed to Examine the Patient Experience with Clinical Support Services
NRC Picker and ARAMARK Healthcare are teaming up on a research project to better understand the aspects of support services that influence the patient experience. The study includes feedback from patient focus groups and interviews with ARAMARK Healthcare support service employees, which resulted in a patient-centered set of questions designed to work in conjunction with other patient experience measurement tools such as the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS)(R). These questions also may be used by hospitals as an independent instrument to measure patient perceptions of support services.
"Assessing the patients' experience with support services using a patient centered approach will provide hospitals with information to help identify areas for improvement to create a positive patient experience," said Joe Carmichael, NRC Picker president.
Presently, support service functions are not consistently measured as part of HCAHPS, but remain a central part of the patient care experience and are essential in driving positive overall ratings of care. The questions were created using NRC Picker's style of experience-based questions measuring behaviors, which HCAHPS questions are modeled after. The questions are currently in the pilot stage to examine their reliability and validity before finalizing them later in 2008. These voluntary supplemental questions will be used to help hospitals improve the quality of their support services.
Support service areas to be evaluated as part of this study include: food services, housekeeping services, clinical technology services and facility services such as laundry, patient transportation and facilities management.
NRC Picker completed 11 patient focus groups at five hospitals in the United States and Canada. Themes emerging from these groups helped identify the key questions about support services that patients identified as important. Additional interviews with ARAMARK Healthcare service specialists and employees provided context to these themes as they relate to the service delivery process.
The advent of HCAHPS - the first national standard for the measurement of inpatient experience - emphasizes the critical need for hospitals to assess all aspects of the patient experience. HCAHPS is part of a public/private partnership committed to publicly reporting valid and comparable information on the quality of hospital care and includes a standardized survey tool as well as a consistent set of data collection and reporting procedures.
While hospitals are not required to submit HCAHPS today, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) will withhold a percentage of reimbursement as an incentive for hospitals to improve quality of care. Assessments of support service functions are largely absent from the HCAHPS survey as well as from other third-party measurement systems, yet have a meaningful impact on the patient experience.
John Babiarz, group president of ARAMARK Healthcare said, "Transparency is a priority with our hospital clients today as HCAHPS data is already available and public advertisements recognizing participating facilities have occurred in more than 55 cities. While questions asking patients about their experiences with the clinical aspects of care are readily available for inpatients through HCAHPS and for other service lines through NRC Picker, we believe that this research will help to offer an even more comprehensive understanding of patient expectations."
About NRC Picker
NRC Picker is passionate about patient-centered care and always dedicated to measuring and improving the most important aspects of the patient experience. NRC Picker's comprehensive approach to integrated research, evidenced-based best practice recommendations and quality improvement helps clients achieve successful patient-centered care environments.
For more information, visit at www.NRCPicker.com or call 800-388-4264 to learn more.
About ARAMARK Healthcare
ARAMARK Healthcare is a leader in providing best-in-class clinical support services that are essential to healthcare delivery. Understanding that clinical excellence and the environment are interdependent, ARAMARK Healthcare directly impacts the entire healthcare continuum - patient, employee, nurse and physician satisfaction, operational efficiency and service excellence. Through its facility, food and clinical technology services, ARAMARK Healthcare helps nearly 1,300 hospitals and senior living facilities deliver the optimal experience for patients and residents, their families, and the physicians, nurses and staff who care for them. For more information, visit http://www.aramarkhealthcare.com.