VHA Mid-Atlantic offers patient experience tool in partnership with Marbella Technologies Inc.

IRVING, Texas, Oct. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- VHA Mid-Atlantic LLC, a regional office of the national health care network VHA Inc., announced that it has partnered with Marbella Technologies, Inc. to provide hospitals and health systems with a new mobile technology to assess and supplement patient satisfaction and experience during the patient's stay to improve their Health Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems or HCAHPS scores.

Clinicians and hospital staff at participating hospitals can use Marbella's survey technology on tablets, smart phones and computers on wheels for real-time monitoring and response during patient rounds. If a survey flags a patient perception issue, appropriate staff members are alerted via text message, email or pager so that they can respond – for example, contacting housekeeping to clean a patient's room.

"With reimbursement tied to health systems' HCAHPS score, it's important that hospitals proactively understand and improve the patient and family's experience and satisfaction during their stay," said Mark Tino, vice president, performance improvement, VHA Mid-Atlantic.  

Vinnie Whibbs, founder and CEO Marbella Technologies, said its Smart Rounding^TM solution empowers health care providers to capture perception-of-care data on all patients in real-time, using mobile technology.

Lancaster General Health (LGH) partnered with Marbella Technologies to achieve an improved level of patient interaction, enhance their approach around overall satisfaction priorities and create real time service recovery. 

"We feel strongly that the key to improved patient satisfaction is understanding the patient's and family's perception of care," said Karen Oxler, senior vice president, hospital operations/nurse executive at LGH. "We were able to develop Marbella's mobile surveys on iPad® mobile devices to measure the patient experience in real-time to ensure the best experience possible. The application's custom alerts notify the appropriate staff when service deficiencies are present, and its reporting package provides us with critical data for process improvement initiatives."

VHA Mid-Atlantic staff members are assisting hospitals with implementation of technology providers like Marbella and also providing networking opportunities such as user group sessions and semi-annual meetings where participants can share tips to maximize the success of their patient experience initiatives.

Marbella helps health care organizations by analyzing their current HCAHPS scores to create customized surveys that address specific areas of focus and to gain insight into the patient experience. Hospitals can track service issues to completion and also gain insight from daily, weekly and monthly activity reports to sustain improvement.

At a national level, VHA offers comprehensive patient experience services via the VHA IMPERATIV™ portfolio as well as additional education and training in conjunction with ExperiaHealth to provide hospitals with analytics, educational resources, leading practices and collaborative training opportunities.

About VHA:           

VHA Inc., based in Irving, Texas, is a national network of not-for-profit health care organizations that work together to drive maximum savings in the supply chain arena, set new levels of clinical performance, and identify and implement best practices to improve operational efficiency and clinical outcomes.  Since 1977, VHA has leveraged its expertise in analytics, contracting, consulting and networks to help members achieve their operational, clinical and financial objectives. In 2012, VHA delivered record savings and value of $1.9 billion to members. VHA serves more than 1,350 hospitals and more than 72,000 non-acute care providers nationwide, coordinating delivery of its programs and services through its 13 regional offices. VHA has been ranked as one of the best places to work in health care by Modern Healthcare since the publication introduced this list in 2008.      

About Marbella Technologies:

Founded in 2012 by an experienced team of technology and clinical professionals, Marbella Technologies provides hospitals an automated mobile technology-based patient rounding solution that improves perception-of-care. Smart Rounding™ uses customized surveys and real-time alerts to solve problems on the spot. The result is higher patient satisfaction, an enhanced reputation and improved financial performance.

SOURCE VHA Inc.