FEATURE STORY / 15 WAYS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF YOUR CLINIC
1
THE POWER
OF DATA
Before changing anything, get a good
sense of your starting point. Having
a thorough understanding of your
practice from the patient’s point of view
will help you identify key issues and get
to the root causes. Here are a few tools
to help you see your clinic in a new light:
Flow Mapping
Flow mapping involves walking through
your clinic as a patient and taking notes
on your entire visit experience, from
initial intake to final goodbyes. What
happens to you? What do you observe?
Examine the customer service, the
physical layout, times when you are
left waiting, and any elements that feel
unnecessary to your patient journey.
Any point along the patient journey may
be a source of delays and frustration
that can negatively impact your patient’s
experience and their receptivity to
the care you offer. Periodically asking
patients to carry a cycle timing chart
with them during their visit will enable
you to see where the sticking points are.
Patient Experience
Questionnaire
The Patient Experience Questionnaire
(PEQ) is a free to use, reliable, validated
measure of patient experience. PEQ
is an 18 item self-reported measure
of how a patient has felt about their
consultation which measures patient
experience along the following domains:
communication; emotions; short-term
outcomes; barriers; and relations with
auxiliary staff. Using the PEQ with every
patient you see for a few days each
month will help you assess how you are
doing and track your progress.
You can download a copy of the PEQ
and learn more about best practices for
using it in your clinic and assessing the
results at: http://measuringimpact.org/s4-
patient-experience-questionnaire-peq
Patient reviews
Keep an eye on your patient reviews on
sites like Yelp and RateMDs to get a sense
of what people are saying about you.
Positive reviews may describe your
clinic’s strengths in a way you hadn’t
considered before. By paying attention
to the things your patients appreciate
about your care, you may identify a
particular strength of your clinic that you
can build on or showcase in a new way.
Cycle Timing
Cycle timing is an extension of flow
mapping. As you move through your
visit, note the amount of time each
step takes. How long does it take
between when a patient enters your
clinic until they step out the door? What
percentage of this time is spent with
the practitioner they came to see? A
basic cycle timing measurement will
note: patient arrival, time spent with the
practitioner, and patient departure. More
detailed cycle timing measurements
may also include:
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10
Wait at check-in
Complete check-in
Wait in waiting room
Move to exam room
Wait for practitioner
Interaction with practitioner
Move to checkout
Wait for checkout
Complete checkout
FALL 2017
COMING SOON: ChiroPatientsMatter
The CCA is in the process of developing a fully-cloud-based system,
ChiroPatientsMatter, which will allow participants to integrate a patient
feedback survey within their practice. Patients will receive approximately five
questionnaires from the time before their initial appointment up until 90 days
after beginning care.
Four of the surveys will come from a validated questionnaire called the
Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile which will seek to understand
whether the patient understood their diagnosis, if they felt they were heard
by their practitioner, and other items related to their experience. Practitioners
can learn more about the MYMOP tool at: www.bris.ac.uk/primaryhealthcare/
resources/mymop/
At the 20-day survey mark, patients will receive an adaptation of another
existing, validated tool used widely by general practitioners, which has been
renamed the Chiropractic Patient Assessment Questionnaire. This anonymous
assessment will collect satisfaction results from a patient’s viewpoint
and provide insight into their experience with the clinic, receptionist, and
practitioner, alongside their treatment.
Practitioners in the UK who used an earlier version of the ChiroPatientsMatter
tool found that it allowed providers to proactively engage patients who were
not progressing in their treatment as expected, address other barriers to
retention, and promote a positive patient experience.
ChiroPatientsMatter is currently in the pilot stage of development and will be
offered by the CCA to chiropractors across Canada. Interested members can
contact the CCA for more information.