With SurveyVitals’ comprehensive solution, you have access to all of our features without any extra cost. It’s likely you’re using our robust reporting tools, but are you taking full advantage of everything your solution has to offer? Here are five SurveyVitals features you should consider incorporating into your improvement strategy today.
1) Comment Sentiment Analysis
Sentiment analysis was rolled out with SurveyVitals’ recent Report Builder upgrade. Using natural language processing (NLP) and a machine-learning algorithm, sentiment analysis helps you gain a better understanding of your patient comments by providing tonal and sentiment insights.
Text comments can be sorted by sentiment ranking to help you identify the most critical feedback. Sentiment analysis saves you time and drives a higher awareness of your patient experience. See your comment analysis today by using the ‘Report Builder’ in your portal.
2) Improvement Center
You’ve reviewed your data and you know your improvement priorities, but that’s only the first step. Improvement can be overwhelming. Using input from top performers combined with extensive scientific-based research into the patient experience, we created the Improvement Center. Log in to your portal today to access dozens of articles and videos to gain a better understanding of the behaviors that contribute to higher patient satisfaction. Simply click ‘Improvement Center’ in the left navigation of your portal.
3) Challenge Mode
Challenge Mode is an excellent way to boost user engagement and drive improvement. Administrators can issue challenges to providers throughout the organization and focus on specific survey questions or question areas. Then watch as participants work to rise to the top of the leaderboard! Scores are tracked throughout the specified challenge timeframe and providers can see how their scores compare to their peers. Start using Challenge Mode today by clicking ‘Challenge’ in the left navigation on your portal.
4) Email Alerts
We know you’re busy, and checking in on the portal can easily get away from you. From instant low-score alerts to bi-weekly kudos emails, our email alerts keep you up to date on your performance. Alerts are designed to provide constant awareness of your strongest areas as well as highlight your improvement opportunities.
Alerts can be enabled by an administrator on the ‘Manage Users’ page.
5) Survey Customization
Did you know you can personalize the survey requests sent to patients for all three modes of contact? Customizing these requests adds a level of familiarity, which may contribute to higher response rates and more accurate feedback.
To customize survey requests, access the options under the ‘Survey Settings’ tab in the left navigation in your portal.
Expect alert emails to look a bit different when they hit your inboxes this week! Based on client feedback, we’ve updated alerts emails with a sleek new interface and made it easier for clinicians to view trends in performance.
Previous alert emails included the display of a provider’s percentile rank over time for the corresponding question area(s). When looking at short performance periods, a higher beta sometimes caused variability in rank which made it more difficult to track individual performance. The updated email alerts will now show mean score over time, making it easier for providers to gauge both an increase or decrease in scores over the last 90 days.
When email alerts are enabled, providers receive instant email notifications including the question, score, mean versus time, best practices, and links to other improvement resources (example image above).
If you aren’t receiving email alerts, talk to your administrator today about enabling them. Low score alerts help drive improvement by providing continuous, instant awareness of patient concerns. Simply turning on these alerts has been proven to drive improvement with no additional coaching.
Have questions about alerts and notifications, or need help enabling them? Contact us using the blue chat icon below!
OrthoTexas is a physician-owned group specializing in complete orthopedic care, surgery, and non-surgical procedures for the total body. Their nine locations offer the latest technology and imaging, in-house physical therapy, and on-site surgical centers. Their organization, one of the largest groups of board-certified, fellowship-trained orthopedic physicians in Texas, began using the SurveyVitals® solution over 2 years ago for their 27 providers.
“We didn’t have a patient satisfaction tool before we chose SurveyVitals. We had no way to measure our patients’ satisfaction levels,” said Tracy Jackson, Vice President of Operations. “But then we heard Bob [SurveyVitals’ President] speak at a conference in Austin, and we knew we had found the tool to take us to the next level,” he continued.
Jackson explained, “One of the features I appreciate most is the Alerts section of the portal. I typically log in to the SurveyVitals portal 2-3 times per week to ensure the managers at our multiple locations are promptly managing their alerts. The new Alerts page makes it easy to manage, track, and archive alerts across all of our locations in one easy spot.”
Mr. Jackson pays particular attention to the Contact Me requests that come in from patients. “It’s imperative to stay on top of any contact requests that come in from patients. While there are always a few patients who don’t really need follow up–perhaps they didn’t fully read the question–it’s worth a few extra phone calls to make sure we promptly address any true patient concerns.”
“In our organization, each manager is responsible for their location’s contact requests. We always add notes to the SurveyVitals system, and mark them as In Progress so everyone can clearly see the status of each open issue. We then attempt to reach out to the patient twice, adding notes about resolution when appropriate. If the patient hasn’t responded after the two attempts, we’ll change the status to Closed.”
Mr. Jackson continued, “Before that new function was launched, I used to spend so much time copying and pasting the contact requests into Outlook, saving them in a pending folder so I could follow up on them as need. I’d have to remind my managers twice a week to check their alerts. The new Alerts functionality has saved me so much time. Now we’re managing all of that information within one spot in the SurveyVitals product.”
“In the end, it’s all about happier patients. They’re pleased that you listened to them, and that increased satisfaction is reflected in our scores,” finished Jackson.
Tracy Jackson, Vice President of Operations at OrthoTexas, is thrilled with the amount of time his group saves while using the new Alerts & Contact Me functionality that was rolled out earlier this fall. Here’s a snippet of an email that he recently sent to the SurveyVitals® Support Services team:
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE what I’ve seen on the contact requests and statuses. This will not only save a great deal of my time (and my team’s), but will also help us easily track the alerts and provide timely resolution. Great job and thank you to the SurveyVitals team!
When we asked him what he appreciated most about our patient satisfaction solution, he said:
If we don’t measure it, we can’t improve or hold our group accountable for providing completely patient-focused care. We need to empower and educate our providers, and address the areas we need to improve upon. SurveyVitals helps us meet all of those objectives.
Thanks for sharing your sentiments, Tracy! We’re glad that our solution helps you and your group succeed in today’s rapidly changing environment.
Rich new features help you manage crucial notifications
The SurveyVitals team is profoundly passionate about building the tools that help our clients improve and reduce malpractice risk. While you’ve always had the ability to view the notifications that alert you to possible issues, we’ve now made it even easier to manage, track, and archive alerts and contact requests in one easy location. You can even investigate improvement opportunities within the context of the specific survey that triggered the alert.
At the highest level, you’ll see faster page responses, better filtering, and an expanded view of alerts within the context of the survey. Brief videos explain how to navigate the new page. Let’s dive a little deeper into some of the exciting new functionality.
Filter & Sort
Filtering allows you to sort, organize and quantify your alerts. Use the high-level filtering at the top of the page to view alerts versus contact requests and see which are active versus archived. There’s also search functionality if you’re looking for something specific.
Specific filters allow you to sort by date or filter by providers, division, survey, score, or whether comments are present. Please remember to press the Load button if you sort by Survey type.
View in Context, Archive & Edit
Once you’ve found an alert, you can quickly see if a patient contact request is associated with it. In the image below, you can see that the provider has received a survey that triggered an alert and has a patient contact request. The entire patient survey loads to the right so you can quickly see the low scores in context of the entire completed survey. We note how often the provider receives low scores in this area–from often to rarely. If you prefer to see only alerts without the survey details, simply click the Collapse View button in the upper right-hand corner.
Once you’ve reviewed an alert, you may choose to archive or delete it. Archiving removes an alert from your inbox, but does not delete them. You may archive and delete alerts one by one or by using the Select All button.
Status & Tracking
Contact requests require follow up and now allow you to assign a status to each. All requests start as Open and can be changed to In Progress or Closed. A log tracks the status each time the alert is viewed or changed and adds a user name and time stamp so there is a history of the interaction with each contact request. There’s even a new notes field where a user may type in the next steps or how the issue was resolved. This feature will make communication between those who manage alerts virtually seamless. The Visibility button in the upper right-hand corner tells you which people in your organization can see contact requests and notes.
We hope this new functionality helps you better manage your organization’s alerts and contact requests. Click on the About button in the upper right-hand corner for more information or click the ? button in the lower right corner to connect with a member of our Support Team if you have questions.
Filter and search by custom criteria, dig into the details fast.
Patient Contact Requests
“High patient satisfaction is related to increased market share, financial growth, diminished malpractice claims, and enhanced compensation rates” (Shirley & Sanders, 2013).
Now when a patient answers “Yes” to the question “Would you like to be contacted to discuss your experience?”, a contact request notification is created with their contact information. Securely viewed in your portal, with alert options via email, contact requests contain contact information. No more guessing how to reach a patient who leaves a critical comment or concern.
Please note it is important for your organization to designate a quality specialist to respond to every contact request you receive. A quick response from your organization is a major factor in patient satisfaction and reduced malpractice liability.
Archive
Keep your alerts to a minimum, like your inbox, with the archive button: access archived alerts and contact requests anytime you want while maintaining an active list of alerts.
Filter & Search
Now available at the top of your redesigned alerts page, filtering allows you to look at custom criteria more quickly. You’ll also find a keyword search to quickly access exactly the alert you were looking for. The filter section allows you to filter by all notifications, survey alerts, or contact requests. Use the search to add anything you would like, like a division name for example.
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Rich new features help you manage crucial notifications
