Methodology
Measuring Patient Experiences at Cincinnati Children's
Our vision at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is to be the leader in improving child health. As a leader, we are committed to improving the quality of the care and services we provide to our patients and families.
At Cincinnati Children's it is essential for us to know how our patients and families rate our care and services. We use this information to look for ways we can continue to improve our healthcare delivery for all patients, while also raising the bar for pediatric healthcare around the world.
Surveys & Methodology
The patient experience survey process at Cincinnati Children’s helps to identify and monitor areas for improvement work. In 2014 Cincinnati Children’s partnered with National Research Corporation (NRC).
NRC began collecting patient experience data using nationally tested surveys in standardized formats to externally benchmark results against other pediatric institutions.
Cincinnati Children’s administers 13 surveys:
- Outpatient Clinics*
- Inpatient Units*
- Emergency
- Urgent Cares
- Home Health Services
- Inpatient Behavioral Health
- Outpatient Behavioral Health
- Outpatient Therapy Services
- Outpatient Surgery
- Pediatric Primary Care*
- Ancillary Services (Radiology & Laboratory)
Each week Cincinnati Children’s provides our survey vendor with the patient population from the areas listed above seen at our facilities the prior week. Telephone interviews are administered two to three weeks after the visit by NRC with up to five call attempts made to families (families may request a call back at a more convenient time). Each night survey results are uploaded to an online web-based reporting tool (NRC Catalyst).
* The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) program is a multiyear initiative of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to develop surveys of patients' experiences with care and to support use of the survey results for public reporting and quality improvement.
