The Impact of COVID-19 on Patient Experience Within a Midwest Hospital System: A Case Study

Abstract

Patient-centered communication and patient-provider relationships directly affect patient outcomes. The purpose of this study was to compare inpatient perception of provider/nurse communication in both COVID versus non-COVID diagnoses groups. A qualitative retrospective study was conducted by performing a priori coding analysis on Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems surveys from 4 different hospitals for both COVID and non-COVID diagnoses. Five themes emerged from non-COVID patient data: inconsistent health care provider communication, variable patient-provider education, pandemic influenced patient satisfaction and mental health stress, inconsistent hospital services, and stable provider professionalism. Five themes arose from the COVID patient data: provider gratitude, controversial communication methods, consistent patient education, lack of quality patient care, and poor timeliness. There is evidence of shared patient perceptions between both COVID and non-COVID patients, but also differences including timeliness and quality of care. The pandemic influenced all patients by creating non-mutually exclusive themes including overall gratitude and patient satisfaction. Future research should focus on a quantitative analysis of pandemic-related patient-provider communication effects on patient outcomes.

Changes in Patient Experiences of Hospital Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…By Q4/2021, a summary measure of patient experiences was 3.6 pp lower across all hospitals than would have been expected without the pandemic, a medium effect size by the guidelines by Quigley et al for patient experience measures. Staff responsiveness and cleanliness scores decreased by large amounts, possibly reflecting high absenteeism in the hospital workforce and delays in care associated with staff having to wear PPE . The decline of the overall rating and hospital recommendation measures lagged the decline in more specific HCAHPS measures, possibly reflecting initial forbearance or lower expectations in patients’ overall assessments at the onset of the pandemic.…”

“…8 Several other potential negative associations of the pandemic protocols, including substantial delays in services, challenges communicating with physicians and nurses, and poor patient education, were identified in a single-hospital study of patients with and without COVID-19. 9 In this study, we used cross-sectional data from US hospitals to describe how HCAHPS scores during a peak period of the COVID-19 pandemic differed from what would have been expected based on prepandemic trends. We also assessed whether patients treated in hospitals with higher prepandemic staffing levels and a better quality of care prepandemic had smaller decreases in reported experience after the start of the pandemic.…”

“…Prepandemic research suggests that compared with nonisolated patients, patients who are isolated for infection control consistently exhibit more depression and anxiety, experience more adverse events, and report worse experiences of care on HCAHPS measures . Several other potential negative associations of the pandemic protocols, including substantial delays in services, challenges communicating with physicians and nurses, and poor patient education, were identified in a single-hospital study of patients with and without COVID-19 …”

“… 8 Several other potential negative associations of the pandemic protocols, including substantial delays in services, challenges communicating with physicians and nurses, and poor patient education, were identified in a single-hospital study of patients with and without COVID-19. 9 …”

Nurse–patient interaction during the Covid‐19 pandemic: Creating and maintaining an interactive space for care

“…Despite these rather positive care and interaction experiences, patients felt isolated, which was burdensome, in particular for those with a Covid‐19 diagnosis. In two studies, patients diagnosed with Covid‐19 reported high quality of care and expressed gratitude, but also higher levels of mental health burden and isolation than patients with other diagnoses (Drapeaux et al, 2021; Hsiao et al, 2021). Compared with hospitals allowing visitors, a “no visitation” policy resulted in poorer staff responsiveness ratings and higher fall and sepsis rates (Silvera et al, 2021).…”