Healthcare organizations work tirelessly to impact and improve patient experience, constantly reviewing feedback and analyzing data to drive meaningful change. While much can be affected through traditional standardized data, there is a struggle to understand accountability and impact on an individual and real-time level. Research shows a patient may interact with 50 nurses, physicians, and support staff across multiple disciplines, making it difficult to identify areas of improvement when faced with generalized, delayed feedback. This case study examines how the real-time, individualized data in Wambi, the first and only real-time engagement and recognition system that includes all key stakeholders in healthcare including patients, clinicians, healthcare staff, and leaders, creates transparency into these individual experiences and has been shown to be an early indicator of the HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) results in key communication domains, and in fact that Wambi’s patient review questions directly correlated with a hospital’s 5-10% improvement.

The national, standardized, and publicly reported HCAHPS review is important for assessing patients’ perception of hospital care. By administering and collecting a random sample of patient reviews continuously throughout the year, the HCAHPS review provides organizations with a glimpse, albeit delayed, of what is going well and areas of opportunity. Organizations utilize Wambi to capture feedback and recognition from patients to positively impact patient experience, improve staff engagement and team effectiveness, and minimize burnout. University of Maryland Medical System Upper Chesapeake Health (UCH), the leading healthcare system and second largest private employer in Harford County, Maryland, implemented Wambi on inpatient units with the goals of improving employee engagement and patient experience. Analysis of UCH data indicates that Wambi is in fact an early indicator of the communication domains of the HCAHPS.