The News: Qualtrics has introduced its Complaints and Grievances solution, which expands the capabilities of the XM Platform, benefiting the patient experience (PX) by offering a more expedient process so that patients can be heard and issues acted on more quickly. This solution also lessens many internal workflow and process burdens. More information on the new Complaints and Grievances solution can be found on the Qualtrics website.
Qualtrics Broadens XM for Healthcare With New Solution
Analyst Take: The patient experience can be deeply personal, frightening, and fraught with layers of process and paperwork. Gathering feedback during a healthcare experience also has the added complication of regulation in the mix. And then there is the often overburdened staff tasked with handling the process.
Qualtrics has been expanding its capabilities for the healthcare segment to help with many of these issues, as evidenced by its recently introduced and aptly named Complaints and Grievances solution.
Complaints and Grievances Solution Deepens XM for Healthcare, Promising Faster Corrective Actions and Increased Operational Efficiencies
The Qualtrics XM Platform currently allows for data capture surveys as well as all the other data sources generated by a particular person. This data capture includes unstructured data, such as phone calls, chats, and other interactions with a patient, and information from prior visits. It can offer a broad picture of PX and is being used by healthcare systems such as Humana, Anthem, and Kaiser Permanente.
The Qualtrics Complaints and Grievances solution was developed to ease the issues and requirements involved in the healthcare grievance process. Industry regulations inform how these grievances are defined as well as how organizations must respond to them. It can be a disjointed process because if a concern is raised and it is not taken care of at the actual point of care, or if it is in written format, the concern is considered a formal grievance and then must be addressed in writing. This requirement results in many different systems and processes for collecting, tracking, and addressing these grievances, all while needing to be within regulatory compliance. And it leaves an often overburdened staff tasked with managing this process.
The Complaints and Grievances solution addresses this disconnection and consolidates the numerous case management and communication tools into one system, easing some of the burden. Automated workflows can speed up the multi-stage review process, track cases, and manage caseloads.
On the PX side, this streamlined process will hopefully result in faster identification of sub-par experiences and faster actions to correct them.
Stanford Health Care Experiences Increased Digital Channel Usage and Operational Improvements
The execution of experience management in healthcare can be quite difficult due to disjointed systems, compliance, and regulatory issues as well as potentially understaffed patient services teams. Additionally, providing a positive patient experience can be challenging, and research shows that healthcare providers aren’t often hitting the mark with their feedback strategy.
Stanford Health Care helped develop Qualtrics Complaints and Grievances solution and was an early adopter, using the tool to identify areas for improvement. Since adopting the solution in April 2023, 11% of patients voice their concerns via an online channel instead of phone or mail, resulting in a 30% reduction in open cases as well as freeing up staff time. Improved reporting and more transparency between teams were additional benefits noted by the healthcare provider.
“Improving the patient experience starts with our ability to listen in and understand all patient concerns,” says Alpa Vyas, vice president and chief patient experience officer at Stanford Health Care. “Complaint and grievance management is not about a score or a ranking; it’s about understanding what matters to our patients and providing our teams with the tools and insights to improve care.”
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
Other insights from The Futurum Group:
Personalization and Deep Understanding Need to Be at the Heart of Patient Experience
Qualtrics Uses AI to Generate Automated Summaries for Video Feedback
Author Information
As a detail-oriented researcher, Sherril is expert at discovering, gathering and compiling industry and market data to create clear, actionable market and competitive intelligence. With deep experience in market analysis and segmentation she is a consummate collaborator with strong communication skills adept at supporting and forming relationships with cross-functional teams in all levels of organizations.
She brings more than 20 years of experience in technology research and marketing; prior to her current role, she was a Research Analyst at Omdia, authoring market and ecosystem reports on Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and User Interface technologies. Sherril was previously Manager of Market Research at Intrado Life and Safety, providing competitive analysis and intelligence, business development support, and analyst relations.
Sherril holds a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from University of Colorado, Boulder and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Rutgers University.
