Timely MRI patient feedback can help radiologists make improvements that positively translate toward the patient experience, suggest findings published April 11 in Current Problems in Diagnostic Radiology.
Researchers led by Evie Nguyen from the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ found that gathering patient feedback after MRI appointments is feasible, and using this feedback to make practice adjustments improves patient experience scores.
“Reviewing and responding to patient feedback is key to improving patient experience,” Nguyen and colleagues wrote.
With radiology eyeing value over volume for imaging practices, patient satisfaction has come under the microscope. Patient satisfaction contributes to increased patient scores in national rankings for radiology departments and hospitals.
The Nguyen team’s institution adopted a radiology patient experience initiative to better understand the patient experience within its department. The initiative featured a brief, radiology-specific survey distributed to patients after their exams.
Through this program, the researchers explored the feasibility of collecting prompt patient feedback after outpatient MRI exams and how radiology staff responses or actions affected patient experience scores.
The study included completed survey data collected in 2021 and 2022 from 6,043 patients who responded via email after their exams. The survey consisted of the question “How was your radiology visit?” with a 5-point emoji-Likert scale, an open-text feedback box, and an option to request a response.
The top box score for “How was your radiology visit?” increased from 81.1% during the first month of the study to 86.1% during the last month.
The team also analyzed Press Ganey scores from a separate group of patients who underwent outpatient MRI concurrent with the study period. Higher scores indicated increased satisfaction.
The top Press Ganey score for “radiology staff concern for comfort” was 89.6% for the first quarter (April to June 2021) and 94.8% for the last quarter (July to September 2022), a 5.2% increase in raw scores. The top score for “courtesy of radiology technologist” was 91.8% for the first quarter (April to June 2021) and 94.8% for the last quarter (July to September 2022), a 3% increase in raw scores.
The researchers also reported the following:
- Patients reported service excellence in 59.2% of surveys, long wait time in 6.3%, and poor communication in 6.1%.
- 5.5% of all survey responses required radiology staff responses or actions. This included sharing feedback with supervisors, providing direct feedback to staff, and making telephone calls to patients.
- The median wait time slightly decreased from 46 minutes in the first half of the study to 45 minutes in the second half. (p = 0.02).
- The percentage of patients who reported long wait time decreased from 7.4% to 5.4% (p = 0.002).
The study authors highlighted that initiatives implemented by imaging teams have a positive impact on the patient experience. This includes taking steps such as assigning an assistant to manage the newly added desk in the subwaiting area, training staff to communicate effectively, and setting proper patient expectations.
“Patient feedback is a crucial tool for healthcare providers to assess the quality of care they provide,” they wrote. “By collecting and analyzing patient feedback data, the radiology team can make data-driven decisions to improve patient experience.”
The authors also noted that since the study, their institution has hired more medical assistants to work on communication with patients, boosting operational processes.
The full study can be found here.
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