Knowing how your patients experience care is key to improvement across your healthcare organization. The right data — used in the right way — can steer better decision-making that can create positive change for your care teams, patients, and surrounding communities. 

But none of this information is actionable without effective patient experience management platforms. Such programs enable organizations to collect insights, make in-depth assessments, and implement well-informed strategies to enhance outcomes. 

However, with some evidence pointing to declines in patient experience across the country, it’s essential to choose the right software. And the best way to ensure you make a well-informed selection is to outline your organization’s needs to verify any potential platform can meet them. 

1. Establish your patient experience goals 

The first step in ensuring your patient experience management platform meets the pressing needs of your organization is to clearly establish your patient experience goals. There are a few key reasons for initiating your purchasing journey with this step, including: 

• Alignment with organizational objectives: Patient experience goals directly connect with the broader objectives of healthcare organizations. For example, providers might want to improve patient loyalty — a metric inherently tied to patient satisfaction. By having a precise idea of how your targets connect to the experiences of your stakeholders, you can efficiently blueprint your ideal patient experience management software that checks all the boxes, and roadmap a discovery process that only includes the right platforms.
• Staff training and buy-in: When goals are established upfront, healthcare organizations can better communicate the purpose and expected outcomes of implementing patient experience management software to their employees. This helps in gaining buy-in from care teams and support staff who not only play a crucial role in delivering a positive patient experience, but are also at the forefront of adopting and implementing software solutions in the healthcare context.

2. Outline specific patient experience metrics you’ll need to collect 

After understanding your organization’s goals, you’ll need to map out the exact metrics for measuring progress toward those targets. By officially organizing your patient experience improvement KPIs, you can better gauge a platform’s: 

• Relevance to existing patient experience initiatives: Each healthcare organization has unique priorities and focus areas for improving the patient experience. By outlining specific patient experience metrics, providers can ensure patient survey software provides the necessary tools and functionalities to capture data relevant to their initiatives. For example, if you’re focusing on enhancing the discharge process, you might need survey questions specifically tailored to gather feedback on discharge instructions and follow-up care.
• Customization and flexibility: Not all patient survey software solutions offer the same level of customization. By outlining specific patient experience metrics, the organization can assess whether the software allows for the customization of survey questions, response options, and reporting features to meet their unique needs. This ensures that the software can adapt to evolving patient experience initiatives and measurement requirements over time.

3. Include decision-makers at every level before choosing a patient survey software 

Investing in a patient experience management platform doesn’t just affect one aspect of your organization. It can impact several layers of operations. That’s why it’s important to include the right decision-makers from every level — from individual units to administrative offices — to: 

• Align technology choices with workflows: The ultimate point of adopting patient survey software is to elevate the patient experience. But that shouldn’t come at the sacrifice of your care teams’ experiences. Indeed, administrative burden and operational overload have been found to contribute significantly to healthcare worker burnout. Understanding how any platform might impact the well-being of your employees is paramount for choosing technologies that won’t place more stress on your workforce.
• Ensure proper integration and implementation: Making the decision to adopt a new platform is one thing. Actually integrating and implementing it is a whole other story. You must consider all the different solutions already being used — whether within EHRs as add-on applications or as siloed programs — to make sure any newly introduced technology doesn’t cause more operational friction. Including stakeholders from across your organization can help ensure you’re equipped with this knowledge as you move through the buying process.

4. Narrow your patient survey software options down to comprehensive platforms 

The truth is that simple solutions that only address one issue aren’t sustainable. That’s why healthcare providers are increasingly using comprehensive patient experience management platforms that not only collect information, but also make it actionable to yield concrete improvements. Here are a couple of other reasons: 

• Point solutions can cause more operational friction: Non-integrated, single-use software typically demands a lot of the same implementation steps as more comprehensive platforms — such as IT coordination, employee training, and committee approval. The key difference? After all of the work that goes into adoption, they demand that care teams open entirely different programs outside of their bread-and-butter applications — causing extra steps that can potentially contribute to more stress and less efficiency.
• Platforms are more cost-effective: Though the price tag is typically a bit higher on full-ranging patient experience management platforms, they typically offer a greater value to several areas of your organization. For example, if the software you’re considering offers both patient survey tools and reputation management tools, you’re purchasing a two-in-one solution. And, subsequently, you can identify redundant point solutions you can phase out, freeing up resources to allocate toward other initiatives. 

5. Segment your choices by survey administration method 

Simply put, patient survey software is only as effective as its administration method. As an organization, you will need to organize a cohesive plan for not only what you’d like to get out of your patient surveying, but also how you’re going to get it done. Having a thorough understanding of this can help you: 

• Create a seamless experience for patients during data collection: The goal of any proficient patient experience program is to make significant improvements that could yield better satisfaction, loyalty, and even health outcomes. But that also applies to advancing continuous listening initiatives. Opt for platforms that use digital-first methods of collecting information during patient visits to extend convenience to your data collection processes.
• Meet regulatory standards: According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), more than 4,000 hospitals participate in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers & Systems (HCAHPS) each year. If that includes your organization, chances are you’ll need to consider how your patient experience surveying fulfills specific quality standard measurement regulations. Before scoping potential patient experience software, make sure to clearly outline your organization’s exact requirements to ensure vendors can meet these guidelines. 

Make the Right Patient Survey Software Decision 

With digital advancement moving rapidly in healthcare over the past decade, it hasn’t been easy to discern which platforms offer the most value in the long term from those that might lose their potency in the short term. By identifying your organization’s goals, deciding on the exact metrics you need to make improvements, listening to stakeholders at multiple levels, prioritizing platforms over point solutions, and understanding your survey administration requirements, you’ll be in an optimal position to make an informed decision. 

At Feedtrail, we’re proud to offer the most innovative patient experience management platform on the market that accommodates all of these variables. Curious to see our Experience Management Platform in action? Contact us and we’ll walk you through it. 

About Mallory Magelli McKeown, Customer Success: Meet Mallory, a healthcare professional dedicated to improving the patient experience. With a background in roles like chaplain and family advocate, Mallory’s mission is simplifying healthcare for patients and families. From advisory councils to patient advocacy, she amplifies the patient’s voice. At Feedtrail, she redefines the patient-provider relationship, asking vital questions to guide healthcare leaders toward patient-centered changes. Her goal: revolutionizing healthcare by putting patients’ needs first.