Perception Research for Today's Healthcare
Helping providers understand, manage and improve the perception patients have of them
Perception Research for Today's Healthcare
Helping providers understand, manage and improve the perception patients have of them
Important Notice to Shoppers Perception Strategies will not mail you advance payment or ask you to deposit a check and then send pre-paid cards back to the company. This is a scam and not affiliated with Perception Strategies in any way.
Interact
We interact with and observe patients, physicians, employees, and competitors using Healthcare Mystery Shopping to evaluate processes and service excellence.
Observe
We observe patients, physicians and employees using Ethnography to conduct detailed studies of care team-to-patient interactions, patient care processes and environmental issues.
Train
We use professionally-acted, high quality Task To Touch video lessons to instruct caregivers on how to better connect with patients in order to significantly improve patient perception.
Healthcare Mystery Shopping
Evaluating the patient and health consumer experience from the outside looking in
Healthcare Mystery Shopping
Evaluating the patient and health consumer experience from the outside looking in
Real patient situations in real time. Testing what you hope to discover, verifying what you already think you know, and revealing new insights to help you improve.
Our healthcare mystery shopping studies behavior and process, and evaluates your organization’s adherence to your own prescribed values and standards. We also identify behavioral characteristics of high and low performers to be used in motivating and coaching employees.
Read The Evolution of Healthcare Mystery Shopping by Kevin Billingsley
To date we have conducted over 150,000 healthcare mystery shops since 1998, making Perception Strategies a proven leader in the study of the Patient Experience.
We conduct ongoing programs to show continuous progress or benchmark studies to isolate specific concerns. We also highly encourage clients to shop competitors in order to gain valuable insight.
Our shoppers are first and foremost consumers. They provide the depth of who, what, when, where and how in each shopping report. However, just like your patients, they are not trained on the ins and outs of healthcare protocol.
Healthcare mystery shopping is designed to shine a spotlight on your organization's shortcomings, but it is also important to identify extraordinary employee behavior as well. Each of our studies features recognition of exceptional performance from the patient or consumer's perspective. We call it the The Extra Mile Award, and we have honored thousands of recipients over the years.
TYPES OF HEALTHCARE MYSTERY SHOPPING
How do you determine exactly what the patient or consumer experience is so that you can take action to improve it? The answer is healthcare mystery shopping. Below are many of the ways we get at the heart of your perception issues. Give us a call to discuss the right approach for you.
Click here to get a brief description of the types of studies.
- Customized Appointment Calls (Access Studies)
- Customer Service Calls
- Competitor Calls
- Pricing Transparency Calls
- Process Shops
- In-Person Shops
- Observation Shops
“Our organization used Healthcare Mystery Shopping to improve our patient satisfaction scores in both our ED and on our In-Patient Units. Originally, we made inquiries of 84 mystery shopping companies who indicated that they did healthcare mystery shopping. We then interviewed 26 of those companies and chose three finalists. We are pleased to say we chose Perception Strategies based on their level of expertise working only in the healthcare arena. Not only was their body of work to date impressive, but they were able to align us with other similar-sized healthcare systems before beginning our study to give our physicians and administrators the confidence to move forward. Perception Strategies gave us the kind of information in real time that allowed us to begin making changes immediately.”
Contact us today to see which type of mystery shopping works best for you.
Healthcare Ethnography
Documenting every aspect of the patient experience through comprehensive observations and focused patient interviews
Healthcare Ethnography
Documenting every aspect of the patient experience through comprehensive observations and focused patient interviews
The primary goal of ethnography is to assess the entire patient experience from the patient and family perspective, reveal barriers to low HCAHPS scores, and provide detailed recommendations for improvement.
If your organization’s goal is to fully understand the patient experience, no form of research surpasses ethnography for achieving experiential depth and insight. By placing ourselves in the patient’s environment for an extended period of time, we bring to light the patient satisfaction barriers that often go undetected or unreported by staff.
The benefits to our clients have been far-reaching by stripping away silos, miscommunication, and faulty processes. This allows the organization to clearly see what the patient sees (quite literally as we identify environmental issues).
Because our findings present immediate and actionable feedback, our solutions correlate directly to improved satisfaction scores. These detailed studies identify the cultural, process, and people issues (often unseen by the provider) that lead to patient dissatisfaction.
In addition to patient interviews, visitors to the patient room are also often interviewed. Observations are primarily based on HCAHPS-related issues such as communication, cleanliness, and noise.
An extensive review of the patient experience by unit or department is provided which includes interview data analysis, people, place and process related themes, non-employee photographs, and recommendations. We also conduct briefings with participating unit/department leadership and the CNO if appropriate prior to departure. Onsite presentations of the findings are available upon request.
Contact us today to begin seeing and hearing what the patient sees and hears.
Harvard Business Review Article Features Perception Strategies Ethnography
An extensive ethnography study conducted by Perception Strategies in 2012 for the Cleveland Clinic is featured in the May Issue of the Harvard Business Review in an article entitled 'Health Care’s Service Fanatics.' Written by Dr. James Merlino, head of Cleveland Clinic’s Office of Patient Experience, and Ananth Raman, our study is described as an “anthropological examination of a nursing unit that had received some of the Clinic’s worst scores in the CMS survey."
Our Clients
We are proud of the healthcare perception services we have provided to following clients for over 20 years. Thanks to all of them from Perception Strategies.
Our Clients
We are proud of the healthcare perception services we have provided to following clients for over 20 years. Thanks to all of them from Perception Strategies.
Academic Medical Centers
- Barnes Jewish Hospital
- Baylor Health Care System
- Boston Children’s Hospital
- Brigham & Women’s Hospital
- Cleveland Clinic
- Dana Farber Cancer Institute
- Drexel University College of Medicine
- IU Health
- Johns Hopkins Health System
- Loyola University Health System
- Northwestern Memorial Hospital
- SUNY Upstate Medical University
- UCSD Medical Center
- University of Kentucky Healthcare
- University of Miami Medical Group
- University of Utah Health Care
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Health Systems
- Advocate Health
- MedStar Health
- Catholic Health Partners
- Central Florida Health Alliance
- Clarian Health System
- Community Health Systems
- Community Health Network
- Daughters of Charity
- Franciscan Health System
- Guthrie Health System
- Henry Ford Health System
- Inova Health
- Nemours
- Novant Health
- Oakwood Health System
- OhioHealth
- Omni Health Management
- Parkview Health System
- Sparrow Health System
- St. John’s Health System
- St. Vincent Health (IN)
- St. Vincent Health (AR)
- Steward Health Care Network
- Trinity Health System
- Universal Health Services (UHS)
- Wellington Regional Medical Center
- WellStar Health System
Clinics
- Activate Healthcare
- Community Health of South Florida
- Fairview Breast Health Center
- Fresenius Medical Care
- Great Falls Clinic
- Harbin Clinic
- Pinnacle Pain Medicine
- The NeuroMedical Center
- Vein Solutions
- St. Francis Weight Loss Center
- Colonial Management Group (New Season)
Health Insurance
- Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield
- Blue Cross of California
- Health Alliance Plan of Michigan (HAP)
Practices
- ChenMed
- Northeast OB/GYN
- Green + Klooster Dental Health
- St. Vincent Physician Network
- Northern VA Oral, Maxillofacial
- University of Maryland Faculty Physicians
- Houston Methodist Specialty Physician Group &
- Houston Methodist Primary Care Group
Hospitals
- Avera McKennan Hospital
- Avera Sacred Heart Hospital
- Bloomington Hospital
- Broadlawns Medical Center
- Cincinnati Children’s Hospital
- Cleveland Clinic Lakewood Hospital
- Cleveland Clinic Naples
- Cleveland Clinic Weston
- Cooley Dickinson Hospital
- Corona Regional Medical Center
- Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center
- Doctor’s Hospital
- Foote Memorial Hospital
- Franciscan Medical Group
- Good Samaritan Hospital
- Goshen General Hospital
- Grant Medical Center
- Inland Valley Medical Center
- Magnolia Regional Health Center
- Medical Center of Central Georgia
- Mercy Hospital Anderson
- Mercy Medical Center – N. Iowa
- Norton Audubon Hospital
- Our Lady of the Lakes Regional Medical Center
- Peach Regional Medical Center
- Pipestone Hospital
- Rancho Springs Medical Center
- Saint Joseph Mercy Health
- Scott & White Memorial Hospital
- St. Elizabeth Medical Center
- St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers
- St. Joseph Medical Center
- St. Joseph Mercy Hospital
- St. Joseph Mercy of Macomb
- St. Mary’s Health Center
- St. Mary’s Hospital
- St. Rita’s Medical Center
- Summerlin Hospital Medical Center
- The George Washington University Hospital
- Tri-City Medical Center
- Tri Health
- Truman Medical Center
- United Health Services
- University Hospital
- Waukesha Memorial Hospital
- Wellington Regional Medical Center
Other
- Adoption Connection
- American Cancer Society CAN
- Beryl Institute
- Biotest Pharmaceuticals Corp.
- Cincinnati Health Alliance
- Denison Parking
- Cobblestone Grill at Johns Hopkins
- FutureCare
- Georgia Organization of Nurse Leaders
- HealthFirst
- HealthPark Valet Services
- Hospice of Dayton
- Hospice of Central Ohio
- Jewish Family and Children’s Center/Seniors at Home
- Johns Hopkins Home Care
- National Church Residences
- Rae Ann Skilled Nursing
- St. Jude Medical, Inc.
- Strategic Management
- The Power Practice
- The Scooter Store
- Trinity Continuing Care