Quality and Outcomes Reports - Critical Care

Patient and Family Experience

Why we measure it - To understand how we are doing, we ask our patients and families to tell us about their care experiences. Our goal is for everyone to have the best possible experience with us. While "very good" is a great answer, we focus on the response "excellent." We know that patients and families who rate their care as "excellent" most likely will refer others to our care.

What this means - This reflects the percent of patients and families who had a visit to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and responded "excellent" or "very good" to the survey question, "Overall, how would you rate the care your child received at the hospital?" 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 get feedback about their overall experience. Children's Hospital uses the feedback from this survey to direct changes that improve the patient and family experience.

Related dimensions of care:

What we're doing to provide the best care:

• There are a number of efforts intended to ensure a positive patient and family experience. These range from the room environment to daily involvement of families during patient care rounds and periodic focus groups to understand their needs.
• Parents, grandparents and legal guardians may visit 24 hours a day.
• Families traveling from long distances are encouraged to use our Family Accommodations Program to make travel arrangements and coordinate appointments. Children's Hospital has partnered with non-profit organizations like Ronald McDonald House and Kathy's House to offer comfortable, "home away from home" accommodations. Local hotel chains on our referral list also offer discounts for patient families.
• 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.

Patients and families:

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

Referring physicians:

• 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
  • Pediatric Rounds
  • Webcasts
• Pocket Directory

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