Survey On The Spot Poised for Growth in Healthcare

BOSTON, Dec. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- On The Spot Systems, a mobile systems provider, today announced that it is receiving record-high responses from surveys in its healthcare sector. The system allows doctors to better understand the quality of care while saving hospitals time and money. It is currently used to survey patients at several different points of care in healthcare facilities including emergency rooms, transitional care units, and nursing departments.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111220/NE24515 )

On The Spot Systems is reporting that one location using the mobile survey with iPod touch devices administered by volunteers after the patient has seen the care giver has 15 percent of patients giving feedback, versus less than one percent from their traditional survey system. Another location, Brockton Hospital located in Brockton, MA, is using the solution on iPads not only in their transitional care unit but also with the nursing administration department throughout the hospital to gain insights into nursing care.

"Survey On The Spot eliminates the pitfalls of using a paper-based system," said Mike Baldassarre, administrator for the transitional care unit at Brockton Hospital. "We were making follow up phone calls in order to receive feedback but now we no longer have to do that. Patient satisfaction is top of the line for us. Not receiving enough feedback for it to be valuable was a problem. In addition, making the follow up phone calls was time consuming, inefficient and costly."

The survey is confidentially administered when a patient is ready to leave the transitional care unit. The easy-to-use consumer interface allows the surveys to be completed in minutes and results are immediately available for hospital staff. If a patient has reported that anything was "poor," management is alerted for immediate damage control.

Dr. Greg Hess, Senior Fellow at University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Health Economics & Policy and an expert in outcomes research says that the time is now for mobile healthcare surveys. "Capturing patients' opinions and experiences is more important than ever, and will accelerate over the next few years as they shoulder more healthcare costs," said Dr. Hess. "A patient's say will increasingly influence which hospital they go to, the doctors they see, the brand or generic medicines they are on, and the insurers their employers select."

"Although we originally created Survey On The Spot with restaurants in mind, we're finding that healthcare has been an easy, natural fit," said On The Spot Systems President Ken Kimmel. "Doctors and nurses are valuing the real-time results and we're embracing the growth in the sector. We're excited to see what insights hospitals will be able to gain from using the survey and how it will continue to help doctors deliver the best care possible."

Baldassarre is also looking forward to seeing where the solution will go in the field. "We have outpatient office facilities," he said. "I think this could also work for someone who has an office appointment to rate their satisfaction from the booking to the actual appointment." To see a healthcare survey in action, On The Spot Systems has created a brief YouTube video demonstrating its use: http://bit.ly/u0IlAM

To learn more about Survey On The Spot in healthcare please visit www.surveyonthespot.com or try a sample healthcare survey on your mobile device. You can follow Survey On The Spot on Twitter: @surveyonthespot, join their Facebook page: Survey On The Spot, and read their blog: http://blog.surveyonthespot.com/

About On The Spot Systems:
On The Spot Systems develops mobile systems to enable businesses to gather customer insights and service feedback wherever and whenever it is needed.

Survey On The Spot enables retailers and other service focused organizations to capture in-the-moment customer feedback cost effectively. Utilizing iPhone and smartphone technology, our surveys provide on-site insights including photos and text commentary.  The system also features service alerts, digital coupons and rewards, and automated data reporting via the web.

SOURCE On The Spot Systems