Collecting Patient Feedback as a Means of Monitoring Patient Experience and Hospital Service Quality – Learning from a Government-led Initiative

Abstract

Patient feedback plays a significant role in hospital service improvement. However, how to encourage patient feedback that can guide hospital service improvement is still being explored. By examining patient feedback data related to a tertiary hospital in China that was collected from the "12345" Government Service Convenience Hotline (GSCH), the paper discusses the learnings from GSCH in encouraging patient feedback and how quality improvement initiatives have effected the number and types of complaints made by patients and their families via GSCH. Methods: The study retrospectively collected and analyzed complaints on a Tertiary General University-affiliated hospital made via GSCH between 2016 and 2020. Patient care process-related complaints were coded using the health care complaint analysis tool (HCAT) and other complaint data were categorized based on the nature of the complaints. The autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models and mosaic plots were used to observe complaints trends and different complaint variables, respectively. The relationship between various quality improvement initiatives introduced since 2018 and patient complaints was also tested. Results: Close to 67% (n=2688) of calls made to the GSCH hotlines about the hospital were classified as a complaint including 60.6% vs 39.4% related to patient care process and nonpatient care process, respectively. For patient care process-related complaints, specifically against departments and personnel, 57.72% (n=961) were on clinical departments and 55.87% (n=471) were on doctors. Comparing the proportion of the complaint data in different categories in the two-year period of 2017-2018 and 2019-2020, an increase in management problems (47.73% vs 58.50%, P<0.001) and decrease in relationship problems (33.65% vs 25.69%, P=0.002) were recorded. Conclusion: A unified, transparent, and impartial GSCH platform greatly encourages feedback from patients and families. Feedbacks provide evidence to guide health care organizations in improving the overall experience of patients and the quality of services that they provide.

Development of an Intuitive GUI-Based Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Model for Comprehensive Hospital Service Quality Evaluation and Indexing

“…Some researchers have suggested that even hospitals' supply chain management can significantly affect the service quality dimension and hospital performance [27,28]. Similarly, Han et al [29] utilized the data obtained from the government initiative of a hotline for patient feedback to measure service quality. The patients' feedback and complaints were utilized to make recommendations to the hospital to improve their service quality.…”

Quality and Safety Standards in Health Services: Development and Implementation

“…Patient involvement plays a crucial role in improving service quality to regulate and prevent harm cases, as it facilitates the identification of existing or potential medical issues, providing valuable insights for developing medical services. This concept allows for anticipating qualitative outcomes and service effectiveness while efficiently reducing patient injuries and associated medical expenses, significantly improving health status (Han et al, 2023).…”