few years ago, I met with a team of nurses and techs in Endoscopy. They were struggling to improve their low patient experience percentile ranking.

Here is the conversation:

Kirk: How do you feel about the experience you are giving to your patients?

Team: We give really great care to our patients and our patients are happy.

Kirk: What if I told you that you are scoring in the 60th percentile?

Team: [saddened] I guess we are not providing great service to patients.

Kirk: What if I told you that you are scoring in the 60th percentile but most of the patients are happy with their care?

Team: [confused] What?? How is that possible?!?

It’s easy to be confused if you only look at the percentile rank. The percentile rank doesn’t help you have a conversation about creating experiences for patients. Frequency analysis is a way to help better understand your patients' experience.

How to Engage Staff Around The Frequency Analysis

I wanted to create conversation with the staff, so I made a matrix for my team to visualize how each patient answered the survey. Each week, I would look at the frequency distribution for those questions and put a ‘frowny’ or ‘smiley face’ (this was pre-emoji days) in the column to represent a patient who gave us that rating. My team was now ready to have the conversation about the difference between a good versus very good experience.

Information About Delays - Goal 80% Very Good:

Each face represents a patient, and that’s important. I wanted the staff to remember that every person matters. Patient experience is about delivering a consistent experience for every patient.

Focusing on ‘good’ and ‘very good’ can really change the conversation with your staff and positively engage them in the data.