Hospitals are quickly moving toward increased visibility when it comes to patient care. 25.8 billion dollars of Recovery Act (ARRA) funds is going toward Health Information Technology and establishing electronic health records. In addition, it’s increasingly important to capture feedback from the patients themselves about concerns involving a hospital stay.

The overarching goal, of course, is to improve care and reduce costs.  Duncan Regional Hospital and the five hospital network of  Wellstar Health System capture and track all feedback from patients with the Everest software solution for healthcare. 65% of patient complaints are received by front line employees. It is critical that employees have a way to efficiently document patient concerns in order to promptly resolve them and avoid further escalation.

Making it simple to record customer feedback is the first step. The Everest Healthcare Solution includes a patient feedback portal that is an online form any clinician or staffperson can rapidly fill out at any computer workstation on the Hospital’s intranet. There is no login required for staff to utilize the electronic form so there is no limitation on usage or the volume of submissions. The result is a fast, simple paperless process for capturing all types of patient feedback.  Nurses and other healthcare professionals are busy and need to be able to enter a complaint, concern or service recovery as soon as they walk out of the patient’s room. Once the feedback is in Everest, it can be reviewed by a member of patient relations or the patient advocate to ensure that there is appropriate follow-up and resolution.

Excellent patient care  is the priority for these hospitals, but there are other goals as well. Everest includes real-time reporting and data analysis for ongoing performance improvement, quality management and  identifying systemic issues. Tracking actions with due dates and automatic email reminders is also an important way Everest helps improve accountability and promote full engagement across a large healthcare network especially those who serve patients across multiple locations.

Minimizing litigation risk is also important, and keeping good records is critical when it comes to preventing escalation of an issue.

Finally, management and administration can view this information at any time to monitor trends, view analytics, and discover where to focus hospital resources to achieve the best improvements in patient care.