Whether they are on Standford's inbound and outbound calls, automated voice systems or mobile channels, patients can be heard through the health system's engagement tools and processes.

Dr. Adrienne Boissy, chief medical officer of Qualtrics and a practicing neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic, explained why emotional harm that can be caused by healthcare interactions needs to be heard. 

"Complaints and grievances are a huge part of the experience of our patients and our people, quite frankly," she told Healthcare IT News on HIMSSCast. 

Hospitals also adhere to federal and state laws governing response to medical grievances and must typically respond within seven days, Boissy noted.

At Standford Healthcare, that information flows across channels – including written letters – and drives patient-relations-team workflows. It has helped make the health system's complaints and grievances processes more reliable and improved process results for patients and employees. 

Complaints and grievances have also become a part of Stanford Healthcare's improvement efforts, said Alpa Vyas, vice president and chief patient experience officer.

Aggregated grievance trends data is shared monthly with operations teams, and being able to drive insights across patient feedback data sources is a "second big win," she said.

While about one-third of patients generally skip care because of emotional harm, the vast majority of complaints and grievances stem from communications issues, Boissy said.

"This can be resolved."

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Talking points:

• The power of access.
• Enabling more effective communications and reducing administrative burden.
• Getting to the greater granularity of data.
• Harnessing unstructured data to understand individual patient experiences.
• Advising predictive actions to prevent service line issues.
• Changing the paradigm and creating a cycle of gratitude.

More about this topic:

Hospitals rank low across industries for patient and employee satisfaction

Listen holistically and involve patients in precision medicine

Epic integrates Qualtrics patients' experience data

Patient experience, 'smarter' analytics and data-driven medicine

Cedars Sinai's real-time ER feedback platform helps improve patient satisfaction

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.