Case Study: Improving patient satisfaction and operational efficiency at Centra Health
About Centra Health
Centra Health is a nonprofit healthcare system with four campuses in Central Virginia, operating outpatient facilities, and long-term care centers. Focused on a patient-centered approach, Centra Health is committed to delivering quality care and enhancing the healthcare experience for patients and their families.
Food services and environmental services at Centra Health
The goal of Centra Health’s food services (FS) and environmental services (EVS) divisions is to deliver the highest level of services possible to ensure patient satisfaction and support the hospital’s reputation for excellence. Ensuring meals consistently meet dietary needs while maintaining high standards of quality requires continuous monitoring. Additionally, providing clean, well-stocked restrooms for patients, visitors and staff remains a top priority. Existing methods for gathering and assessing feedback were considered to be inefficient, limiting Centra Health’s ability to make timely improvements.
Key challenges
Manual feedback and audit processes
Centra Health has relied on manual processes to collect feedback, track compliance and service quality. This inefficiency not only increased regulatory risks but also hindered the organization’s ability to implement meaningful operational improvements.
Paper-based results
Traditional feedback collection methods using paper surveys and audits led to low participation rates and difficulty in sharing results with team members. As a result, Centra Health struggled to gather sufficient actionable insights, making it difficult to gauge satisfaction levels and identify trends over time.
Delayed feedback
The organization depended on Press Ganey feedback, which often arrived long after patients had been discharged. This delay made it challenging to address patient concerns promptly and ensure their overall satisfaction during their stay.
Inconsistent service standards
Without real-time monitoring and data analysis, Centra Health experienced inconsistencies in food service quality and overall patient experience across its facilities. The lack of a standardized approach made it difficult to maintain uniform service levels and meet patient expectations.
Implementing solutions to overcome key challenges
To overcome these challenges, Centra Health sought a more efficient and data-driven approach to service quality management in its food services and environmental services divisions.
Starting in 2024 Centra Health collaborated with Touchwork to implement multiple solutions that directly tackled these challenges in their flagship Lynchburg General Hospital location. It aimed to enhance patient experience, improve operational efficiency, and ensure compliance with regulatory standards.
Getting real-time patient feedback via QR codes and a rounding app
Centra Health introduced QR codes on patient trays to streamline the feedback process. These codes enable patients to quickly share their thoughts on meal quality, temperature, and staff interactions. Feedback is given to the appropriate staff in real time, allowing for immediate action to address any concerns. Touchwork’s AI powered analysis capabilities enable valuable insights to be obtained from the feedback data helping to identify trends and recurring issues and continuous improvements in food service operations.
In addition to QR codes, Touchwork also provided an app for meal rounding. Using a cellphone or tablet, staff can visit patients and capture their feedback using the app. The combination of QR codes and the meal rounding app ensures that more patients are providing feedback about their dining experience enabling Centra Health to better monitor the customer experience and address issues as they occur.
Streamlining tray assessments using an audit app
To monitor the accuracy and quality of meal service trays, Centra has been using a paper-based tray assessment audit for many years. To streamline this process, Touchwork created an app to enable staff to perform these audits using a smartphone or tablet. Audits are automatically scored and are available in real-time in a web portal for review and analysis.
The tool allows for checks of food quality, temperature, portion size, and overall presentation. Photos of trays are captured during audits, which provides accountability and support staff training. All the audit results are stored digitally eliminating the need for paper-based record keeping and enabling trends to be monitored over time on configurable dashboards.
Ensuring restroom cleanliness via QR codes and regular audits
Recognizing the role that clean well stocked restrooms have in ensuring a positive hospital experience, Centra Health implemented both QR codes and a restroom audit process. Using QR codes in each restroom, patients, staff and visitors can report restroom problems as these are identified such as a leaking faucet, lack of certain supplies or cleanliness. Environmental service staff (EVS) are alerted in real time regarding these issues and can take immediate action ensuring that facilities remain clean and welcoming for both patients, visitors and staff.
In addition to QR codes, Touch work provided an inspection webform enabling EVS staff to perform regular restroom audits. This checklist includes monitoring the key elements in a restroom to ensure custodial staff are complying with quality standards.
Positive outcomes from targeted interventions
The implementation of these tools has led to notable benefits for Centra Health. Access to real-time feedback from patients enables food related issues to be addressed before a patient leaves the hospital. This in turn can result in higher satisfaction ratings when patients complete a Press Ganey or HCAPHs survey.
Operational efficiency improved through streamlined audits and the elimination of paper-based processes leading to better decision-making. Empowering staff to take proactive steps in addressing issues has fostered a culture of accountability and commitment to quality.
Setting a higher standard in patient experience
Centra Health’s efforts to improve patient experience, food quality, facility cleanliness, and responsiveness to feedback have led to a measurable enhancement in patient satisfaction. This case study highlights the potential for healthcare providers to achieve meaningful improvements by adopting technology-driven solutions tailored to their unique needs.
If you’re looking to optimize your hospital’s food service and facilities management, contact Touch work to explore how our solutions can help.
