Quality and Outcomes Reports - Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery

Patient and family experience

Why we measure it - We ask our clinic and hospital patients and families to tell us about their care experiences. Our goal is for everyone to have the best possible experience with us, so while "very good" is a great answer, we use only the response "excellent" to track our progress. We also know that patients and families who rate their care as "excellent" will most likely refer others to our care. 

What this means - These data reflect the percentage of patients and families who had a visit to the Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery Clinic and responded "excellent" or "very good" to the survey question, "Overall how would you rate the care you received at this visit?" The response options are: excellent, very good, good, fair and poor.

About the data - Children's Hospital of Wisconsin uses a third-party vendor to survey patients and families and obtain feedback about their overall experience. Children's Hospital uses the feedback from this survey to direct changes that will improve the patient and family experience.

Related dimensions of care:

What we're doing to provide the best care:

  • We added a ninth surgeon to our team and another outreach clinic in New Berlin in 2009 to meet the growing need for our services.
  • We have a team including physician assistants, nurses and advanced practice nurses to help coordinate inpatient care and smooth the transition to outpatient care.
  • We encourage partnerships with open, ongoing communication between family members and health care providers. Our Family Advisory Committee is made up of parents and hospital staff to improve communication, quality of care and hospital amenities.
  • We regularly survey our patients and encourage them to share their opinions and suggestions. 
  • We review and implement changes based on patient experience feedback.
  • We offer outreach clinics to reduce the number of trips many families need to make to our Milwaukee hospital location. Our specialists travel to Neenah, Green Bay, and New Berlin Wis., to provide care closer to where our patients live.

Patients and families: 

  • You may receive a patient experience survey. Please share your experience with us. Let us know what is important to you and any suggestions you have for improvement.

Referring physicians:

  • Fill out and fax a referral form prior to sending the patient to Children's Hospital for outpatient ancillary services or a specialty clinic visit. 
  • Forward any pertinent patient documentation, including test results, to the specialty physician's office prior to the patient's visit. 
  • Referring physicians can access our specialists for consultation or transport 24 hours a day. Call our physician referral line at (800) 266-0366.  
  • Health care providers from outside of our southeastern Wisconsin service area are encouraged to use our web-based
    e-Consult service. This service is available for non-urgent patient cases only and gives providers access to our specialists to review patient cases, obtain medical advice or second opinions, and receive care recommendations for rare symptoms and illnesses.
    e-Consult is not to be used by the general public, parents/guardians or families.
  • Care guidelines for medical professionals
  • Educational materials
  • Pocket Directory

If you have questions about this data or information, email us or call (414) 266-6556.