Yale New Haven Health and Yale School of Medicine transform psychiatric care nationally with patient-survey tool

New Haven, CT (Jan. 11, 2024) – A team from Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital (YNHPH) and Yale School of Medicine have developed a new model of surveying inpatient psychiatric patients to gather critical feedback and improve their care experience. The Patient Experience Survey (PIX) will now be required by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for all 1,600 inpatient psychiatric facilities nationwide.

“Psychiatric patients need an effective and empowering way to give feedback on their experience, just like patients in all other parts of our health system,” said David Klemanski, PsyD, MPH, co-director, Division of Quality and Innovation at YNHPH and assistant professor and Yale School of Medicine. “Before PIX, providers did not have an evidence-based instrument to survey our psychiatric patients and collect practice-changing data that will fundamentally improve how we deliver care.”

This feedback gap, which has left psychiatric patients and families underserved, has been due to the unique conditions of this care setting, including factors such as patients experiencing acute symptoms, involuntary hospitalizations, and necessary restrictions to reduce harm to self/others. The Patient Experience Survey aims to bridge this gap with a survey created by an interdisciplinary team of researchers and clinicians, along with staff training on survey administration and a script to minimize potential response bias.

The PIX survey, which depends on patient answering 25 questions about their care experience on a tablet, provides organizations discipline-specific feedback on:

• Treatment team relationships
• Treatment effectiveness
• Nursing team presence
• The healing environment

Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital has surveyed 7,500 patients and has already implemented change as a direct result of PIX, including implementing staff training on cultural sensitivity and educating staff and providers on creating a trauma-informed and trauma-responsive organization.

“Some of our psychiatric patients never had the opportunity to reflect on their care experience,” said Dr. Klemanski. “Asking the right questions is the first step to a collaborative and ultimately more healing provider/patient relationship.”

CMS is adopting the PIX survey measure nationwide beginning with voluntary reporting of calendar year 2025 data followed by mandatory reporting of calendar year 2026 data for the fiscal year 2028 payment determination.

The PIX Survey team consulted with the YNHH Center for Health Care Innovation to develop and evolve its go-to-market strategy.

More information on guidelines for hospitals can be found here.

Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS), the largest and most comprehensive healthcare system in Connecticut, is recognized for advanced clinical care, quality, service, cost effectiveness and commitment to improving the health status of the communities it serves. YNHHS includes five hospitals – Bridgeport, Greenwich, Lawrence + Memorial, Westerly and Yale New Haven hospitals, several specialty networks and Northeast Medical Group, a non-profit medical foundation with several hundred community-based and hospital-employed physicians. YNHHS is affiliated with Yale University and Yale Medicine, the clinical practice of the Yale School of Medicine and the largest academic multi-specialty practice in New England. Yale New Haven Hospital is the primary teaching hospital of Yale School of Medicine. www.ynhhs.org