Patient Experience Journal (Nov 2022)
Improving the accuracy of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Technology for pediatric experience scores
Abstract
The increased use of interactive voice response (IVR) in assessing patient and family experience should be paired with evidence-based practices on how to obtain the most accurate information via this survey mode. We added a brief clarification sentence of the survey scale at the start of the IVR call to improve our experience data both qualitatively and quantitatively. Our setting was an urban pediatric hospital. We gathered lived experiences from our patients, families, and providers to understand and design a change to the IVR survey mode that would reduce survey inaccuracies. Outcome measures were assessed by baseline measurement and post-intervention statistical analysis. Outcome measures were the percent of family comments related to survey errors and the discrepancy in scores for the first question of the survey between the two survey modes, IVR and email. One Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle was used to improve the accuracy of the IVR survey mode. The family survey comments expressing errors made on the first question of the IVR survey were reduced by 92% from a 2.5% (N=3,344 comments) error rate to a 0.2% (N=3,373) error rate. The discrepancy between the first question scores for IVR vs. email reduced by an average of 76.8% change (17.4 vs. 3.8) over a 20-month study period. Our initiative exceeded our goal by statistically significantly reducing the percent of comments expressing errors and the gap in survey mode first question scores. Experience Framework This article is associated with the Innovation & Technology lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework (https://www.theberylinstitute.org/ExperienceFramework). Access other PXJ articles related to this lens. Access other resources related to this lens
