An initiative to strengthen data‑driven decision‑making has grown into an organization‑wide commitment elevating the patient voice through real‑time insights that improve care at Oak Valley Health.
Over the last two years, Patient Experience worked cross-functionally to develop processes to digitally survey patients by email about their care experience — designed to be meaningful across patient populations and clinical contexts.
The team co-created custom dashboards with leaders, supporting staff from ideation to implementation, to ensure data is relevant, accessible, and actionable. This marked a shift from traditional mail and telephone surveys, enabling a deeper and timely understanding of patient experience.
“After going live with 10 digital surveys collecting quantitative and qualitative feedback from our patient population, we began to understand the opportunity before us, given the richness and the volume of insights coming directly from our community,” says Kanwal Ali, Manager, Patient Experience.
“Our team began conducting weekly reviews, highlighting compliments, flagging feedback requiring immediate attention, and identifying broader themes. This realtime rhythm helped normalize the use of patient experience metrics and created consistency, accountability, and a shared focus on improvement.”
Personalized dashboards also give program leaders access to patient feedback within days, allowing teams to identify trends quickly and take action before issues escalate.
These dashboards provide realtime access to question-level data, including how patients felt they were treated, whether they would recommend OVH, and how they rate their care received.
“Patient experiences highlight how important dignity, privacy, and clear communication are, even in challenging capacity situations. It helps spark a conversation about the small things we can do —checking in more often, explaining what's happening, and being mindful of the environment, to support patients during difficult moments," says Claudia Dominguez Guillen, Patient Care Manager, Medicine/Oncology.
Through quarterly touchpoints, teams review metrics alongside patient comments, discussing trends and identifying opportunities for improvement. This practice has resulted in more than 30 change actions to date. Examples include increased patient rounding in evenings and on weekends, focused attention on hallway patient experiences, and reassessment of cleaning processes in hightouch areas like the Emergency Department (ED).
“Patient experience is fundamental to every metric,” says Cynthia Woodard, Patient Care Director, Emergency Department. “It affirms what we know and surfaces system gaps — from communication and wayfinding to environmental factors and the role of volunteers. Sharing insights helps teams take ownership and continually reframe care through the patient’s eyes.”
Purpose-driven data collection also informs strategic priorities, health equity initiatives, and patient journey mapping.
OVH has also introduced short-form surveys for the ICU, mental health, and outpatient clinics, ensuring feedback is accessible and reflective of diverse care settings.
“Implementing socio-demographic questions in our surveys helps us better understand equity issues, differential experiences, and concerns raised by structurally marginalized patients,” says Jill Shakespeare, Director, Strategy and Patient Experience. “Offering specific feedback supports creating equitable experiences, driving initiatives to advance health equity, especially in an increasingly diverse and growing community. Executive support has also been key in empowering teams to act.”
Insights from Qualtrics data have also led to patient journey mapping at Markham Stouffville Hospital’s ED. More than 22 front-line staff, leaders, and physicians from the ED participated in patient interviews, exploring emotions, perceptions, and challenges from arrival through triage, registration, and waiting.
The work created a shared understanding of what shapes patient and provider experiences and informed a pipeline of short, medium, and long-term improvements grounded in lived experience and data.
After implementing ED improvements, teams returned to the data to identify the next priority. Patient feedback pointed to experiences in hallway beds, prompting the formation of a working group focused on hospital-wide opportunities for hallway care.
The organization is also on track to onboard with hospital peer benchmarking this April. A staff recognition program is also launching to support staff engagement in meaningful change and highlighting and sharing staff practices.
“The provider experience has a direct impact on patient experience. Engaging, co-designing, and partnering with our care teams and patients allows us to realize meaningful and sustainable improvements. Amplifying and spreading the practices and attitudes of our team members make a key difference in realizing an extraordinary patient experience,” notes Shakespeare.