Once again, Houston Methodist was recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the country’s top health care providers. Our outstanding reputation and continued successes are sustained by a culture that places patients at the center of everything we do. We always strive to provide an unparalleled experience for patients, consumers and our employees — the Houston Methodist Experience.

The Houston Methodist Experience brings our I CARE values (integrity, compassion, accountability, respect and excellence) together with our Caring and Serving model, focusing attention on the experiences of our community, patients, guests and customers, coworkers and each employee.

Last December, Dr. Marc Boom, HM president and CEO, shared his vision for greater systemwide focus on the patient and consumer experience. In addition to a focus on improving patient access, efforts are underway to help us more fully understand the HM Experience and explore opportunities for continual improvement.

“At Houston Methodist, our culture is the differentiator,” said Tom Vernon, HM vice president and chief experience officer. “We want to ensure every interaction a patient, consumer or employee has with us is positive. No touchpoint is too big or too small. And everyone plays an integral role.”

To help us develop this unparalleled experience, an expanded strategic partnership has been formed with Press Ganey, whose goal is to elevate everyone’s health care experience. The company currently administers our annual Employee Opinion Survey (EOS) and our Physician Organization patient surveys. With this expanded partnership, we’ll leverage Press Ganey for all patient satisfaction surveys and take advantage of their capabilities and tools to improve our ability to capture and analyze feedback. That data will then be made available to the right team members who can improve the experience immediately and help make process improvements for the future.

Partnering for success

Starting January 1, 2024, iRound, the rounding tool from Press Ganey, will replace our current tool (MyRounding) for the collection and distribution of “in-the-moment” patient feedback. This Press Ganey tool utilizes more dynamic performance dashboards and can be used during non-clinical rounding by a larger variety of groups, including leaders, staff, quality and safety.

iRound will also provide live reporting and alerting tools, so leaders and designated staff can respond quickly to service issues identified during rounds. When a patient concern is captured, for example a bathroom that needs attention, a ticket is created and routed to the appropriate area for quick resolution or response. By acknowledging and addressing patient concerns as they happen, this will lead to a more positive patient experience.

Enlightening the view of the employee experience

The new iRound tool also has forms to capture feedback from our own HM employees. Checklists can be used by managers and HR during rounding and new employee onboarding to collect feedback and ensure necessary activities are completed.

“You can’t have the best patient experience without the best employee experience,” added Vernon. “When we look at them collectively, instead of separate components, we see how they shape and influence each other. A happy nurse leads to a happy patient.”

With the employee and patient data housed in one system, we can better understand the shared experiences of patients and employees. HM managers can connect patient and employee feedback at the department/unit level. This can help to identify where improvement may be needed and when to reward great work, helping employees to be accountable and feel appreciated.

New tools will add more channels for data and feedback collection on an ongoing basis and will include multiple touchpoint opportunities with employees.

A continual process of feedback and improvement

By mid- to late-2024, an integration with Epic will provide even more access points to shared feedback. Clinicians and staff will be able to read notes on their patients’ previous experiences and act upon these for even greater customer/patient service.

The collective data on each patient will also allow for opportunities to create more personalized experiences for our patients and better engagement with our employees. With new tools and richer data, we’ll be better able to understand and shape the Houston Methodist Experience.