Pediatric Emergency Centers’ Thumbs-up Initiative helping to improve patient satisfaction

In line with Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) mission of providing patient-centered care, HMC’s Pediatric Emergency Centers (PECs) have been tracking patient satisfaction under the ‘Thumbs-up Initiative’ launched in 2013.

PECs and their staff provide high-quality, safe and compassionate clinical care to patients under 14 years of age. The main PEC is located in the Al Sadd area and serves as a hub for other PECs across Qatar, delivering a full range of diagnostic and therapeutic services to HMC’s youngest patients.

Under the initiative, families or guardians of patients are asked to rate the performance of the nursing staff who attend to them. They are provided with a slip showing faces with thumbs up, thumbs down, smiley and angry expressions and are asked to check the box that best describes their level of satisfaction. Since the launch of the initiative in 2013, the thumbs up has been the preferred choice of the majority of patients, indicating that the families of the Center’s young patients are satisfied with the level of care they have received.

The initiative was introduced by the PECs administration, led by Dr. Khalid Al Ansari, Director of Pediatric Emergency Centers at HMC, to identify any concerns patients might have regarding the care they receive.

“With the global changes in healthcare delivery, numerous improvements have taken place in the PECs, especially in our pursuit to become patient-centered care facilities. I am proud of our team who are working on this initiative and helping to ensure our nursing staff continues to offer the highest quality and most compassionate care to each and every one of our patients,” said Dr. Al Ansari.

“The initiative seeks to promote more individualized and personalized care at the PECs by asking a patient’s family or guardian to rate the performance of the nursing staff assigned to their child. By doing this, we were able to find out more how our nurses are interacting with patients,” explained the project lead and Director of Nursing at the Al Sadd PEC, Ms. Gloria Arrojo Lariego.

She said that nurses who receive the highest number of thumbs up are recognized at the end of each month. The nurses are also celebrated and awarded certificates during staff recognition events.

According to Ms. Lariego, the other main objectives of the ‘Thumbs-up Initiative’ include identifying customer areas of need, their expectations of clinical staff, and areas of dissatisfaction. “We are using this initiative to help identify customer-oriented staff who can be role models for others, especially new recruits. We are also hoping to motivate our other clinicians to continue to deliver the best care possible,” said Ms. Lariego.

Other members of the team involved in the initiative are Director of Nursing Ms. Huda Al Madadi, Head Nurses Ms. Arla Rose T Perez, Ms. Faten Ibrahim Mustafa, and Ms. Betty Jaison, and Charge Nurse Ms. Glory Elsy Martin.

As the initiative enters its fourth year, overall customer satisfaction is expected to keep improving as nursing staff are encouraged to continue providing high-quality care by showing empathy and patience, ensuring effective communication, engaging in critical thinking and demonstrating their commitment to providing the best possible care.