AslBi, Health Local Unit of Biella, Sperimental Customer Satisfaction Management System

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis: The Health Local Unit of Biella is located in Piedmont Region, Italy and it delivers health care assistance to about 180 000 citizens living in the same Province. The HLU AslBi provides health care services throughout the Health Districts of Cossato and Biella and in Hospital setting. In a historical moment for both national and European health care laws underlining the growing importance of the patient’s opinion in the different National Health Services and of hospital performance evaluation according to the Customer Satisfaction, in 2009 AslBi has been established a Hospital Sperimental Customer Satisfaction Management System.

Methods: Whereas customer satisfaction has always been used as tool for external performance communication, the Hospital Sperimental Customer Satisfaction Management System has been innovatively conceived as tool suitable for an internal communication in a “bottom-up” management approach emphasizing an organisational culture among health care professionals. A main concern was to establish a “bridge” between the different management boards of the trust and clinicians approaches in order to develop a learning shared organisational system. To guarantee the success of the patient survey program in 2009 we strengthened the need to make results specific to smaller units, facilitating the networking for those involved with the customer satisfaction surveys.   We repeated the same surveys at regular intervals, every three months, and gathering data on smaller units we encouraged them to analyse their existing results, quickly sent back as email report after completion of patient survey, both by smaller units and by department. We used a basic statistic tool, percentage, relevant to patient survey and easy to read for those involved. In each report every single unit could read the hospital results for all the items included in the questionnaire used, their single data gathered on smaller unit and a section for patient comments.

Results: In 2009 the AslBi Hospital  Sperimental Customer Satisfaction Management System involved 24 both complex and simple hospital organisational units, 869 clinicians and health care professionals, the management boards of the trust.

Conclusions: Customer satisfaction results were judged to be accurate and robust indicators of patient hospital experience along with leadership by senior manager; the results were then thought to be important promoters of a patient-centred culture. Considering that the staff feedback is usually associated with patient-reported experience, negative staff experience is often reflected in poorer patient experience and viceversa, we asked the staff health professionals to facilitate the networking and exchanging of their health care best practices so that they could start units organisational improvement in a continuous and shared bottom-up management approach. 

Implications for research and/or practice: High project portability