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Boost patient satisfaction scores with hourly rounding

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, January 31, 2008

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As hospitals brace for the public unveiling of their patient satisfaction scores, hourly rounding is a way for organizations to improve their ratings as well as their care. Checking in on patients every hour will not only help patients deal with their pain; it will also likely improve that patient's perception of the hospital's responsiveness to concerns and complaints. And hourly check-ins forge a stronger bond between nurses and patients, thus improving ratings on the level of respect with which nurses treat patients.

A 2006 study of more than 2.3 million patients found the five areas that drive up overall scores. They are:

• Attentiveness to personal needs
• Responsiveness to concerns/complaints
• Level of courtesy/respect with which the nurses treat patients
• Care with which doctors listen to patients
• Extent of efforts by staff members to help with pain

Hourly rounding can improve patients' perceptions in these areas. Encourage staff members to ask patients, "Is there something else I can do for you?" Then, patients know someone is going to come back and they will never feel alone. Their personal needs have been taken care of.

To get more information, go to Quality Improvement Report (QIR). For the cost of just three stories, you can get the entire February issue of QIR. Click here to choose between the PDF and HTML versions for just $30. Subscribers to the online version of QIR have free access to this article. Subscribers to the print newsletter can find this article in their February issue.

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