A performance improvement resource

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

 Patient Feedback (PF) is a clinical performance improvement system designed to help

 clinics by efficiently collecting clinical information from patients about their treatment

 experience, and themselves. Patient Feedback can be a low-cost, high impact way of

 conducting performance improvement studies. PF was developed within the National Drug

 Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network.

 Patient Feedback is currently available to authorized participants in the PF RCT.

 1. Clinician leads group;

 2. Clients invited to complete a confidential Patient Feedback Survey;

 3. Clients drop the survey into a locked box;

 4. Administrative staff faxes the surveys to University of Pennsylvania;

 5.  The Penn Data Center generates feedback reports;

 6. The reports are posted to a password protected website;

 7. Clinic staff meet as a team to look at the Clinic Reports; individual clinicians view their own

     Caseload Reports.

 8. A monthly newsletter highlights clinic successes and those of colleagues around the

     country.

 The original Patient Feedback Survey monitors ratings of therapeutic alliance and treatment

 satisfaction. In addition, several new versions of the PF survey are being developed.

 After surveys are collected and faxed to a toll-free number at the University of Pennsylvania,

 they are converted into feedback reports that are posted to a confidential, password

 protected website - typically in about an hour. Clinic supervisors access reports   

 summarizing  the combined data for the entire clinic while individual clinicians have access

 reports for their own caseloads as well as the combined clinic.

 In order to complete a PF Study, surveys must be distributed and faxed to us in a specified

 manner. Once you complete the online training your office staff should be able to prepare 

 the fax transmission in 30 minutes or less - although it may take a little longer the first time 

 they do it. It is strongly recommended that the clinic staff meet together as a team to review 

 the Clinic Feedback Report. If the clinic is accredited by JCAHO and CARF, we recommend

 that these meetings be documented using the 1-page Patient Feedback Team Meeting form

 or some other manner.

 JCAHO and CARF accredits treatment provider organization, not performance improvement

 systems. Patient feedback was developed with the performance improvement requirements

 of JCAHO and CARF in mind, however.

 Feel free to contact us by e-mail if you have questions.