The Hospital of Walcheren, a general hospital located in Vlissingen, Netherlands, services nearly 120,000 patients annually. Walcheren is committed to using the latest technology innovations to provide its patients with the best healthcare services.
In 1996, the Netherlands passed the Quality Act — Health Care Institutions. This legislation required healthcare organizations across the country to evaluate the quality of their services based on patient feedback. In order to comply with the Quality Act, Walcheren needed to establish a process to gather and analyze patients' feedback regarding their care at the hospital.
Walcheren was already familiar with SPSS Inc.'s analytical capabilities, and looked to the company for a solution. In 2000, the hospital implemented Dimensions™, SPSS Inc.'s suite of market research tools, which enabled hospital staff to quickly process annual patient questionnaires, thereby improving the hospital's efficiency, and comply with the Quality Act.
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Although hospitals are always concerned about the quality of patient care, the Dutch government ensures high quality healthcare by mandating that all hospitals implement a system that helps them evaluate, and subsequently elevate, the quality of their patient care. Like all hospitals throughout The Netherlands, the Hospital of Walcheren, located in Vlissengen, has made progress toward meeting their government's new quality standards.
The hospital followed two models for tracking its quality of care: The Institution for Quality in the Netherlands model (a modification of the EFQM model, a European framework for quality improvement) and the Netherlands Institute for Accreditation of Hospitals model. However, these guidelines did not include methods for investigating patients' opinions and preferences.
The hospital's management team drafted a questionnaire to elicit feedback from its patients on a broad range of topics, from treatment methods to cafeteria food. Due to the large number of patients the hospital needed to survey, it was clear that the project would be complex, requiring advanced analytics to efficiently analyze the responses.
There was no way I could humanly process 6,500 forms and also effectively do my other work. Dimensions helped me enter results faster so I could use the results to make changes that will have a positive effect within our hospital's corridors.
Peter Cijsouw
Quality Manager
Hospital of Walcheren
The search for a valued analytics partner was not difficult. SPSS Inc.'s Dimensions suite was selected by Walcheren because it eliminated the tedium of setting up questionnaires for scanning, making it quick and cost-effective to scan paper surveys. With the use of the Dimensions' analytic tools, the hospital's analysts were able to make comparisons and draw reasonable conclusions. In this case, Dimensions provided a manageable way to process all of the results from the patient questionnaires, thereby advancing the hospital's existing capabilities, and enabled it to comply with the Quality Act.
SPSS Inc.'s analytics were already a proven technology at Walcheren Hospital, and were the logical choice to assist the hospital in gathering and analyzing patient survey data. Peter Cijsouw, the quality manager at Hospital of Walcheren, turned to Dimensions to process the questionnaire results in a timely fashion.
"There was no way I could humanly process 6,500 forms and also effectively do my other work," said Cijsouw. "Dimensions helped me enter results faster so I could use the results to make changes that will have a positive effect within our hospital's corridors."
The Walcheren staff used SPSS® for Windows® to review and analyze final questionnaire results. They used the results from this analysis to identify problems and make appropriate improvements in their service. For example, many patients noted that they didn't receive enough details about their illness and treatment. Using SPSS for Windows, the doctors identified that this was a common complaint, and are now more comprehensive in their descriptions of ailments.
According to Cijsouw, "SPSS has really helped us to identify areas where we can improve patient care, and has already contributed significantly to patient well-being and satisfaction."
There were several instances where patient survey analysis indicated areas in need of improvement. For instance, a majority of patients indicated they were insufficiently informed about where they could turn for emotional support. Knowing that maintaining emotional wellness is equally as important as physical wellness, hospital staff made considerable changes in their communication processes.
The analysis of patient feedback has become increasingly important at the Hospital of Walcheren. Success with the Dimensions suite of tools has led the hospital to extend its evaluation process to nursing and outpatient departments. As it turns out, SPSS Inc.'s analytics were just what the doctor ordered.
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