Blogs

By David Shapiro Is your health plan’s quality ratings meeting your goals? Maybe you don't have access to current end-to-end experience data, which prevents you from improving quality in the way fully needed. Or you find it hard to prioritize quality efforts, because you don't have clear member insights to support needed changes. It's time for action. Today, taking a member-centric approach is essential for quality improvement. And that requires regularly listening to the member’s voice. Traditional health plan quality improvement methods rely heavily on the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) and Consumer Assessment of Healthcare ...

By Charlie Carlton, Col, USAF Ret, MS Senior Consultant, Press Ganey Strategic Consulting A foreign object left inside an Air Force F-35 engine in early 2023 caused nearly $4 million in damages. The item — a handheld flashlight — was sucked into the engine’s air intake during a maintenance ground run procedure. During an idling portion of the procedure, a team of three maintainers started the engine without issue before going through typical checks, to monitor for fuel leaks. It wasn’t until the airmen turned off the engine that anything seemed amiss. During the shutdown, one maintainer noted “abnormal noises” coming from the F-35 engine. None of the airmen ...

By Steve Kreiser, MBA Partner, Strategic Consulting In the past we have included a story in our Universal Reliability Skills training about a man who worked for Stanley Steamer who left his child in his car after driving past the daycare center and forgetting to drop her off (defined as a skill-based lapse). It was a tragic story, but unfortunately, I still see these types of events in the news all the time. Here is a link to one that happened recently in New York. Unfortunately, his is not a new kind of tragedy. This Washington Post article from 2009, relates a heartbreaking story about another child left in a hot vehicle. This article ...

By Tejal Gandhi, MD, MPH, CPPS Chief Safety and Transformation Officer, Press Ganey Safety is a key driver of patient experience. When patients feel secure and trust their caregivers, they feel protected. And their positive perspectives are reflected in data results. However, when people think of safety, preventing incidents during hospitalizations and hospital-acquired infections typically come to mind. What’s often overlooked is the ambulatory setting, where some of the most important care touchpoints take place. Press Ganey’s data analysis shows how integral ambulatory safety is to the patient experience (PX). Optimal Safety and the Virtuous ...