Patient surveys: Your voice matters at Providence

[5 MIN READ]

In this article:

• At Providence, we receive thousands of patient surveys each year with positive feedback and information that helps us improve.

• Patient surveys help fulfill the “know me” part of the Providence promise.

• In 2025, we plan to introduce new ways for patients to share their stories and to hear our patient’s voices.  

Patient surveys: Your voice matters

Providence receives ratings, comments and insights from tens of thousands of completed patient experience surveys annually. Our promise to patients is “know me, care for me, ease my way.” The information you give us on surveys is one of the best ways we can fulfill the “know me” part of our promise. We value your input tremendously and take your feedback seriously.

“We want to know our patients, we want to hear their feedback, and we want to capture as much of it as we possibly can,” says Brooke Horne, MPH, CPXP, executive director of patient experience at Providence. “We are here because of our patients. Delivering on our promise is one of the most important pieces of capturing patient feedback. It helps us understand what we’re doing well and also gives us an opportunity to understand what we need to improve on.”

How the patient survey process works

At Providence, we invite all patients to provide feedback after every interaction in the form of a short survey of standardized questions. Typically, we survey patients via an email or phone call within 48 hours of discharge, allowing us to capture feedback more quickly than sending a survey through the mail, although we offer that option, too.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires all health care systems to send surveys to patients. Some of our surveys are in response to this request, but others are conducted independently to gather more feedback and insights into your patient care experiences. 

Our surveys are specific to the type of care you receive. Someone who visits one of our ERs is given a different survey from someone who had a planned surgery. If you had a baby in the NICU, we know you are tired and adjusting to life with a new baby, so we will only send you a short survey via email or text.

Our surveys include questions that let us know you better and gain insight into areas where we may have room for improvement. For example, this year we are crafting a survey for our patients with disabilities to ensure all locations have accessible spaces that meet their needs and that we’re offering exceptional, consistent care. And in 2026, we plan to create an inpatient survey to get feedback from patients who have sought our behavioral health services.

Things we ask about in our surveys include:

• Communication: When talking with the nurse, doctor and staff, did you feel listened to, understood and respected? If you had someone with you, were they kept informed?
• Discharge: Was the process simple? Did you have a clear understanding of how to manage your care at home?
• Medication: Do you now have your medication? Do you understand how much you should take and when?
• Care transition: Do you feel comfortable taking care of yourself at home? Do you know how to contact us if you need help?
• Hospital environment: Was your room clean? Was the food warm and prepared to your liking?
• Teamwork: Did you feel that your caregivers worked together as a team? Did you and/or loved ones feel like they were a part of that team?

All surveys are confidential unless you choose not to be anonymous or indicate that you want someone to contact you.

“It is important that patients know that they don’t need to be concerned about sharing honest feedback,” Horne says.

Horne and her team also understand that people are frequently asked to take surveys, even after doing something as simple as buying a cup of coffee.

“We are constantly thinking about survey fatigue,” she says. “So we’re very careful on how we survey, too.”

The richness of patient survey data

Today’s technology allows us to easily gather survey data into a portal where it’s analyzed, broken down and organized on a dashboard accessible by anyone who works at Providence, whether they’re a nurse, a doctor or the person who greets you at the registration desk. Again, survey data is confidential unless you choose for it not to be.

“We can drill down to what we want to see, such as any comment around nurse communication or provider courtesy and respect,” Horne says. 

Comments can be organized from negative to positive, allowing us to see where we have opportunities to improve and what we’re doing well. 

“Data is our patient voice and the patient voice is the most important thing besides getting patients to a positive clinical outcome and making sure they’re healthy and well,” Horne says.

We also regularly report CMS survey data. The information captured in these surveys reflects an overall star rating. Star ratings are available to the public. You can find the star rating for Providence here.

“We want you to be able to make educated and informed decisions on where you’re getting your care,” Horne says. “We want you to feel safe.”

How surveys inspire and influence change

Providence relies heavily on patient feedback to design new programs and services and make improvements so that we may continually prioritize exceptional care. 

“The whole point of our surveys is not to challenge our staff on the care that they’re providing,” Horne says. “It really is to help support them. And when we’re doing the right thing, we’re able to promote that and scale it across the organization. Surveys really help ensure that the patient has a quality and safe experience.”

Positive patient feedback is also a meaningful way to engage and celebrate our caregivers and staff. We regularly share comments and stories from patient surveys in meetings.

“Probably the biggest motivator to our staff and leaders is to hear a patient story,” Horne says. “They need to see the impact that they’re making on lives and the lives that they’re touching every day, whether they are clinical or nonclinical.”

Recently, Horne listened to a patient share her story during a meeting with Providence doctors, nurses, leadership and staff. Although this patient didn’t get the clinical outcome she wanted, she was grateful for the care she received.

“You could just see how inspired every nurse and leader and caregiver in the room was and how proud they were that their teams were the ones that provided this level of service to the family,” Horne says. “We use these stories to encourage, to motivate, to reward and recognize our staff and our leaders because, again, it is why we are here.” 

Horne says it can be easy to focus on the negative in her line of work because of her team’s deep desire to continually find room for improvement so that all patients have positive experiences. However, she also recognizes the power of sharing the many positive experiences she learns about, thanks to patient surveys. Most importantly, Horne wants you to be honest. 

“We promote our surveys because it helps our caregivers really lean into where we have some pressure points that we can resolve with our patients,” Horne says. “I think one of the exciting pieces of this feedback is being able to have insight into the communities that we’re serving.”

Coming soon: Patient Family Advisory Councils

“This year, we are going to do something new that we’re really excited about,” Horne says.

This includes virtual Patient Family Advisory Councils (PFAC), allowing Providence to engage with our communities beyond standard surveys. Working with a facilitator, Providence patients and communities will be able to discuss significant opportunities for improvement.

“We can really drill down into some of those opportunities and let our patients help us design a plan to improve,” Horne says. “We really want to build loyalty to our organization. And I think one of the biggest ways to do that is to engage our patients, so they know that their voice is actually making a change in our organization. Engaging them in these focus groups will give them an opportunity to see the outcome of a process and a journey that we’re taking to promote patient experience at Providence.”

Contributing caregiver
 

Brooke Horne, MPH, CPXP, is the executive director of patient experience at Providence. 

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This information is not intended as a substitute for professional medical care. Always follow your health care professional’s instructions.