A standardized way of measuring and improving patient satisfaction in hospital and healthcare settings has been a key focus over the last few decades. As technology improves and hospitals become more digital, communication is improving among staff and patients.
As a nurse leader, the job wears multiple hats- ensuring a healthy, functioning team, relaying information to administrative staff, and ensuring patients are satisfied. You can improve patient satisfaction scores by utilizing consistent and streamlined nurse leader rounding.
Table of Contents
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Defining Nurse Leader Rounding
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Defining Patient Satisfaction
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5 Ways Rounding Improves Patient Satisfaction
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Conclusion
Defining Nurse Leader Rounding
Nurse leader rounding is defined as a structured process where nurse leaders, the nurses who supervise and ensure the success of their teams, have daily visits and check-ins with patients.
These patient visits further build relationships, ensure consistency of care, gain feedback, meet patients’ immediate needs, and follow up with relevant staff members with opportunities for improvement.
Nurse leaders can be…
- Department managers
- Assistant managers
- Supervisors
- Charge Nurses
Defining Patient Satisfaction
Patient satisfaction is defined as a commonly used way of measuring the quality of healthcare and services provided. Patient satisfaction is directly related to clinical outcomes, patient retention, and medical malpractice claims. It shows healthcare personnel what can be improved upon and what can be praised, all while measuring the success of care.
The most common way of measuring patient satisfaction is through the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey, which was created by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The survey consists of 29 questions that include opinions on the quality of care, staff who cared for them, discharge, and follow-up care plans.
Essentially, how happy were your patients with the care they received?
5 Ways Nurse Leader Rounding Increases Patient Satisfaction Scores
1. By Utilizing Nurse Leader Rounding Technology
In our day and age, where the healthcare industry is mainly digitized, it’s beneficial to use technology and digital rounding platforms. By keeping all patient information and updates in one place, nurse leaders can round with confidence, ensuring no information is misplaced and forgotten.
In return, patient satisfaction scores improve because communication regarding their continuum of care improves. This improvement in communication also allows staff to work together like a well-oiled machine, leaving no stone unturned and ensuring every patient’s needs are accounted for.
2. By Using Customized Toolkits
By tailoring your nurse leader rounding process to your specific patients, you can better understand their care. Nurse leaders know the medical staff and nurses on their team, and they get a chance to get to know their patients. Nurse leader rounding that specifically asks a list of formulated questions related to their department and patient satisfaction are more likely to see an increase in scores.
These customized toolkits constantly evolve and change as systems change and staff shift. As a result, nurse leaders can stay ahead of the curve and watch their patients’ satisfaction scores significantly improve by ensuring they’re asking the best questions for their department.
3. By Obtaining Patient Experience Data
As nurse leaders do their daily rounds on patients to check in about how their time has been so far, their needs, and any feedback, healthcare departments can quickly gather real-time data. Data that would otherwise be unavailable until HCAHPS scores came back.
By using real-time data, leaders can make executive decisions to prevent errors or miscommunication before it occurs. It allows departments to recognize areas for furthering education with staff or small mistakes that can be addressed as soon as they arise. Unlike medical staff and nurses who do hourly rounding, nurse leaders have a unique opportunity as almost a third-party to get a more accurate idea of how satisfied patients are.
4. By Focusing on Quality of Rounding
Nurse leader rounding gives nurse leaders a unique opportunity to focus on the quality of care rather than quantity. Each minute spent with a patient gives your team the ability to take notes on positive staff recognition and areas where coaching staff may be beneficial. Questions can be as open-ended as necessary and specific to each department.
These customizable check-ins ensure that the quality of care meets patients’ expectations throughout their stay.
5. By Fulfilling Multiple Roles
When nurse leader engages in nurse leader rounding, they take on many different roles.
Firstly, they act as an advocate for the patient- to speak up for them and ensure their needs are being met.
Secondly, they act as a manager and analyst when they go back to review the collected data, from rounding to compiling in an easy-to-digest way that leads to internal change.
Thirdly, they act as a leader, in which they instruct and lead their team on ways to improve, learn, and grow based on feedback from patients.
Conclusion
Nurse leaders supervise and manage their teams of nurses in a healthcare setting. This job is accompanied by nurse leader rounding (NLR), a way in which hospitals can gauge how the patient’s experience is going. You can increase patient satisfaction scores by enacting innovative digital nurse leaders rounding into your organization.
NLR can increase patient satisfaction scores (HCAHPS/CAHPS) by utilizing technology for improved communication, customizing the rounding process, understanding data, focusing on quality improvement, and fulfilling multiple roles: advocate, manager, and leader.
Seyzo Health is a healthcare digital rounding tool that allows seamless nurse leader rounding on an easy-to-navigate, innovative platform. See data in real-time, compare and contrast, customize templates, ensure closed-loop communication, maintain process adherence, and stay ahead of the curve. Fill out our contact form for more information or to experience a demo of our platform.
