Thunder Bay hospital uses SMS for patient surveys

THUNDER BAY, Ont. – The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre says it is the first hospital in Ontario to adopt a text message-based patient survey distribution. The hospital has seen a 2 percent increase in people responding to surveys since switching to SMS (Short Message Service, the technology behind text messages).

“SMS really helped reduce some barriers. So, say for those patient populations that maybe don’t check their emails regularly or maybe they don’t have reliable internet or access to a computer. We decided, it’s important to meet patients where they’re at,” said Shannon Schiffer (pictured), manager of patient and family centred care.

“Patient experience surveys are so critical to our hospital,” she said. “They offer direct insight into how patients are perceiving their care and help us really determine improvements to quality and safety.”

“This is really our ability to give our patients a voice in their care and ensuring that we’re operating from a patient and family-centered care philosophy.”

Before using text message surveys, the hospital primarily used email surveys to gather patient feedback, but Schiffer said there were “some barriers” to that approach.

“There was some difficulty in asking patients for email, and there was also some hesitancy on the patient’s perspective on providing email,” said Schiffer.

She said the registration clerks were often questioned about the hospital’s safety and security policy in collecting personal information.

“It was something that our security ITS were all involved in to ensure that there’s no risk to patient information,” said Schiffer.

Other barriers Schiffer found were the limits email had on getting real-time information back quickly.

“It’s a more modern, accessible and efficient way to capture the patient’s experience. Patients are able to fill out the surveys shortly after their experience, so their memory is still fresh. And it enables us to identify those opportunities for improvement and in real-time quality improvement,” said Schiffer.