Increasing Patient and Nurse Satisfaction by Measuring Food Service in Real Time
Compass One Healthcare’s Partnership with Huron Leverages Huron Rounding Technology to Elevate Patient Outcomes and Nursing Support at OhioHealth
The Opportunity
With over 35,000 associates, OhioHealth is committed to delivering world-class patient care, with a collaborative healthcare model that encompasses a wide scope of expertise spanning a 47-county area. To further the organization’s standards of excellence, Compass One’s Morrison Healthcare Food and Nutrition Service team implemented the Huron Rounding tool to increase workforce productivity, boost patient satisfaction scores and provide enhanced support to nursing staff. As one of the top health systems in the nation, OhioHealth identified a vital opportunity to enhance operational efficiency across 6 Central Ohio campuses.
The Solution
Huron Rounding technology highlights patient-based data insights to connect more directly with patients in the hospital while enhancing care and service. This innovative and time-saving software solution enables managers to collect data through a consistent rounding strategy on patients, team members and clinical partners. Huron Rounding improves workflow efficiency, provides current and historical trend analytics, and consistently executes faster service recovery communication and resolution. In addition to the measurable impact on patient outcomes and nursing support, OhioHealth also observed improved Patient Satisfaction scores, which directly reflect the quality of the patient care experience.
OhioHealth Central Ohio Hospitals
- Riverside Methodist Hospital – 1100 beds
- Grant Medical Center – 660 beds
- Doctors Hospital – 220 beds
- Dublin Methodist Hospital – 100 beds
- Grady Memorial Hospital – 150 beds
- Grove City Methodist Hospital – 45 beds
Patient Satisfaction Survey Data
OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital
- Patient Satisfaction from 2nd to 81st percentile *FY 2019-2023 YTD
- 93% decrease in nursing requests from FY19-FY22
*Source: Press Ganey
“I am able to partner with my Morrison Patient Experience leader and request specific targeted reporting. Using analytics we make data driven decisions to improve patient satisfaction.”
—Heather Buck
Senior Director of Food & Nutrition Services, OhioHealth System
The Results
89% decrease in Average Room Service Call Wait Times
*Source: IC Business Manager - Call Center Software
93% decrease in Nursing Requests from FY19-FY22
*Source: Vocera
55% decrease in Average Food Delivery Times
*Source: Tray Monitor
Meal Overall Patient Satisfaction Percentile increased from 2nd to 81st from FY19-FY22
*Source: Press Ganey
Compass One Healthcare facilitated this powerful technology foundation to both enhance accountability, while empowering senior leadership to identify and manage issues promptly in real time to secure sustainable results.
The Strategy
Compass One’s Patient Experience team identified a unit of focus due to receiving a large amount of survey returns, low patient satisfaction scores, and unfavorable verbatim comments from patients discharged from the Riverside Methodist Hospital mother-baby unit. OhioHealth’s nursing team feedback supported these findings, indicating opportunities to collaborate and improve the patient experience for a unit that delivers more than 6,000 babies per year.
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By aggregating Huron rounding data on the mother-baby unit, foodservice leaders were able to collaborate on service recovery efforts, allowing the team to identify and address the needs of this specialized patient population with targeted Patient Experience insights.
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Food and nutrition managers implemented an after-hours strategy through joint rounds with nursing based on patient feedback to include elevated quality and variety of meals and snacks for patients who deliver (or may have changes to their diet orders based on their medical needs) after Food Service operating hours. In February of 2021, the team began tracking all the overnight meals that were thrown out, removing the top 3 most discarded items and collaborating with nursing to select replacement items. In a 3 month period, the team was able to significantly reduce food waste and make more informed decisions regarding meal preferences for their patients.
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FNS managers owned accountability of nourishment rooms, now fully stocked with a variety of fresh options readily accessible, regardless of the hour.
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FNS Patient Satisfaction Rounds secured proactive identification of opportunities to relieve nursing from nonclinical work, including adjusted scripting to promote and gather feedback to ensure that all diet preferences and needs were met.
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Bi-weekly leadership status meetings were prioritized to gather feedback for both successes as well as opportunities to modify or improve food service, delivery times, temperature, and quality.
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Strengthened relationships between nursing staff and food and nutrition services, creating a partnership dedicated to proactive care and reducing service recovery.
Through Huron Rounding, OhioHealth Morrison managers can now access real-time data to compile and share patient satisfaction insights with operations, and ultimately, deliver results. No more clipboards. All relevant patient data is typed into a tablet or phone, and available immediately to food service and patient experience managers, the culinary team, and operations managers at the hospital. The team can readily determine if any enhancements need to be made to improve food service.
“While utilizing the Huron platform, our management team collaborates together by communicating real-time data to all hospital departments. This tool and data have been instrumental in elevating our nursing and hospital relationships. Using patient feedback, we can now recognize and engage our frontline associates to enhance our patient programs.”
—Mackenzie Larsen
System Patient Experience Manager
How Huron Rounding Maximizes Efficiencies
Provides Real-Time Insights
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Provides instant visibility into how patients respond to their meal service, allowing teams to address complaints and solve individual service recovery issues, often in real time
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Displays rounding trends, providing data that enlists targeted process improvement
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Impacts key satisfaction outcomes such as quality, temperature, accuracy, and courtesy
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Allows Operations and Division Patient Experience leaders access to Huron rounding data, encouraging ongoing review and team collaboration
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If service recovery issues emerge or patient satisfaction declines, Huron insights drive performance adjustments faster and more accurately
Relieves Nursing from Non-Clinical Work
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Encourages collaboration of Patient Experience Managers, Patient Services Teams, Culinary and Clinical Nutrition Teams
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Allows patients the opportunity to communicate service needs directly to Food and Nutrition Services
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Decreases the amount of non-clinical patient requests; fewer patient service recovery requests helps keep nurses at top of license
Promotes Outstanding Service
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Highlights valuable patient insights on frontline associate and overall department performance, allowing leadership to quickly respond to feedback and training opportunities.
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Encourages associate accountability to consistency of program standards and quality care, often used for incentive programs.
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Provides recognition opportunities for associates exceeding expectations through courteous interactions, identified by patients firsthand.
Employee Associate Engagement Surveys demonstrated a 46 percent increase in associate engagement from FY 18-23.
“Huron goes beyond the surface of asking questions and tracking answers. When used correctly, it’s a tool that allows us to dig deeper into operational disconnections, when and where they occur, then fix by leveraging the Huron data. Taking it a step further, when we drill down and correct problems we can reward and recognize staff for their efforts, build engagement, and create a positive team culture that centers around the patient experience.”
—Erica Hamilton-Mifsud
Senior Director of Nutrition Services at OhioHealth
