Cedars-Sinai ED Continuously Improves with Relias XM

Cedars-Sinai ED learned that the most effective way to boost satisfaction scores wasn’t to shorten a patient’s wait. It was to make their wait more pleasant.

Overview

“The feedback we get from patients via [Relias] enables our nurse leaders to connect with specific team members in real time and pass on the compliments, contributing to improved morale and teamwork.”

— Claude Stang, Executive Director, Emergency Department

Challenge

The Cedars-Sinai Emergency Department always scores highly on patient satisfaction. However, being one of the most high-profile, busiest emergency departments in the country comes with many challenges and limited time in which to address them.

Actions

To address areas of improvement while handling the constant change in their Emergency room, Cedars-Sinai implemented Relias surveys which focused on a single issue at a time. They have rotated new survey initiatives nearly every 6 weeks – cleanliness, care communication, wait time and experience, and more.

Results

Cedars-Sinai has been able to identify previously unknowable, specific improvements which have a serious effect on scores. For example, when air fresheners are placed in the waiting room, cleanliness scores are greatly impacted. Most importantly they found improving the waiting room experience, communication and staff interactions, made a bigger impact than the actual time spent waiting.