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Tufts Medicine + Qualtrics
Moving beyond post-care surveys to understand the end-to-end patient experience
Tufts Medicine achieved
+10
Point overall NPS increase
Improvements in every HCAHPS category
8%
Point increase in overall hospital rating
Overview
Tufts Medicine is a leading healthcare system at the forefront of medical education, research and innovation. The team at Tufts Medicine saw an opportunity to amplify the voices of its patients by listening, understanding and acting on patient insights in real time.
A technology-enabled program
Tufts Medicine aims to design frictionless, unmatched care experiences. Prior to using Qualtrics, they had limited information about how patients were feeling about the care they received. The feedback they did collect came back weeks after the visit, when emotions and memories from a hospital visit had often faded. It was difficult to analyze and glean actionable insights from the delayed feedback.
“We are now able to more deeply understand what is most important to our patients, and we use these insights to design processes and systems to deliver exceptional experiences,” said Olga Litvak, system director of patient experience at Tufts Medicine.
With Qualtrics, Tufts Medicine launched a modernized patient experience program spanning locations, departments and teams. The flexibility of the program enables them to create personalized surveys for different patient segments, moving beyond typical post-discharge surveys.
In its first year using Qualtrics, Tufts Medicine achieved improvements across regulatory areas, including every domain of HCAHPS from nurse communication to care transitions, and a 10-point increase in overall NPS.
Improving the way patients feel
The way a patient feels is deeply connected to quality of care. Improving patient experience is a priority for everyone at Tufts Medicine, as they look to build more personalized experiences that improve health outcomes.
With pre-surgery outreach, Tufts Medicine is asking patients how they can make their experience more positive and if they have any fears. The anesthesia team then reaches out to patients who respond to ease any concerns.
Individual departments have automated systems to close the loop with patients who give a less than excellent rating. By following up within days, Tufts Medicine is demonstrating that they truly care about the wellbeing of their patients and are willing to make changes when an experience is less than ideal.
Expanding access
Tufts Medical Center, the academic medical center at the heart of Tufts Medicine, is located in Boston’s Chinatown and serves a diverse population, so it’s critical that the feedback they capture is representative of all patients. Qualtrics enabled the hospital to expand regulatory and non-regulatory surveys in nine different languages. Now, even open-ended comments are automatically translated, so that reviewers can quickly understand them and take action.
In addition to managing language barriers, Qualtrics has improved data accessibility, with the ability to pull up customized dashboards with automated analysis that helps users draw conclusions quickly.
“We saw an opportunity to learn how people are feeling about the experiences we are providing at Tufts Medicine; to learn more about what is working well and what we need to improve,” said Litvak. “In addition to responding in the moment to individual patients and families, we now have insights to guide us as we design ideal experiences. Qualtrics is helping us bring our vision of frictionless and unmatched care experiences to life.”
THERESE HUDSON-JINKS
MSN, RN, NEA-BC, Chief Nursing Officer, Chief Experience Officer and Senior Vice President of Care Services at Tufts Medical Center.
Qualtrics has put both the voice of the patient — and the tools to understand trends — in the hands of our clinical team members. As a result, we are enhancing the frequency of positive experiences and reducing friction as seen in our performance trend
Tufts Medicine brings together the best of academic and community medicine to deliver exceptional, connected and accessible care. Comprised of Tufts Medical Center, the principal teaching hospital of Tufts University and the Tufts University School of Medicine, Lowell General Hospital, MelroseWakefield Hospital, Lawrence Memorial Hospital of Medford, Care at Home, and an integrated network of 2,300 physicians, we treat the most complex conditions, keep our communities healthy and bring research breakthroughs to life.
tuftsmedicine.orgIndustry
Healthcare System
Region
North America
Company Size
Enterprise
Business Type
B2C