“When one of our customers started using our app, 80% of their employees scored within the 80-90% range over the first six months of use – typically missing 1 or 2 items on any given inspection. As process improvements occurred and app feedback was implemented over the next three months, 98% of their employees scored 100% on their inspections.”
Although MB&A only began supporting hospital inspections three years ago, we’re now covering close to 50 facilities throughout the United States. When health system administrators first approached us, our main selling point was that we could help them to innovate their inspection processes – from digitization and scheduling support to compliance reporting and performance management. In 2019, we formalized our quality assurance procedures in our signature ExAM4Inspections app, including standardizing question banks, performance measures, ensuring alignment with sanitation standards, as well as strategic planning and implementation aids.
Throughout the past three years, we discovered that each hospital’s cleanliness is impacted by a variety of personal and practical factors, such as employee engagement, ownership, and overall accountability; performance management; the sustainability of certain practices; and the ability to identify training gaps. From this foundation, we developed an evaluation method that can assess the following pain points:
● Staff cleaning performance
● Level of supervisory oversight
● Data on gaps in training and related policies
● Identification of cleanliness/sanitation deficiencies
● Mechanisms to document feedback for employees and supervisors
● Reporting and analyses at various levels of the organization
● Refining training and performance management processes
● Reportable data for employee evaluations
Essentially, our modules are a series of templates, processes, and approaches that represent the best practices we’ve learned from our customers over the past three years. By referring to them, our clients can adapt our approach to their training, technology, and protocols and rapidly address these issues, all the while maintaining the flexibility and agility to meet their specific environmental services needs over time.
For example, administrators can easily develop schedules that enforce hospital policies around things like frequency of inspection (e.g., a quarterly terminal cleaning inspection). Based on the quality assurance data that’s captured during the inspection process, our app provides environmental services staff with direct feedback they can use to continue improving outcomes.
Making QA as easy as 1, 2 , 3, 4, 5
After each inspection, the employee who provided the service can be notified of the inspection results as follows:
Hello EMS Technician [Name],
The results for your assessment [Hospital_Name] – EMS Cleanliness Inspection
are listed below:
Date/Time: 2/27/2020 4:13 PM
Work Location: 1-5 5th Floor
Score (%): 100
Inspected by: [EMS Supervisor Name]
Question(s) Failed: None
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact EMS Supervisor to discuss.
Your Year Inspection Average (%): 100
Your Overall Inspection Average (%): 99.92
For reference, “fully successful” is defined as 80-89%, “excellent” is defined as 90-94%, and “outstanding” is defined as 95-100%.
Thank you!
Of course, receiving direct feedback and having a basis for comparison are key in driving improvement at the individual- and team-levels. We also drive performance through data dashboards that help the program to understand everything from frequently missed questions (which help to improve training and change processes) to average scores for individuals, teams, hospitals, and the entire enterprise.
Driving Enterprise Insights
When one of our customers started using our app, 80% of their employees scored within the 80-90% range over the first six months of use – typically missing 1 or 2 items on any given inspection. As process improvements occurred and app feedback was implemented over the next three months, 98% of their employees scored 100% on their inspections.
Even more impressive, our customer’s score on their Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey (i.e., the healthcare industry standard) jumped from 68.2% to 79.2% within two quarters. These performance jumps show our systemic approach is a core differentiator for hospital administrators who want to address common environmental services management pain points.
Contact us at info@exam4inspections.com to learn what we can do for your hospital.
