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Leader rounding – it’s about making connections
All health care organizations value feedback. At CHEO it’s one of the ways we ensure we achieve our vision of providing the best life for every child and youth. For families with sick children who spend a great deal of time at CHEO, their time is a valued commodity and filling out surveys isn’t always top of mind. Our hematology/oncology team took this to heart and wanted to create a simple, quick way to capture family feedback instantly – so we learn what matters most to families on the spot and make improvements just as quickly. “Leader rounding” is not just another paper or electronic survey – it’s about making connections.
At CHEO we have a variety of ways to garner feedback from the patients and families we serve. Families can fill out surveys, take advantage of our open door policy and speak to a member of the management team or work with our Patient and Family Experience team. Leader Rounding, however, is designed to capture and accommodate everybody on the spot. “It’s another tool in our tool box for people who aren’t going to come and seek me out because they don’t have the time, energy or know how to do that, or aren’t ever going to fill out a survey,” says Naomi Thick, manager of Hematology/Oncology & Dialysis. “When we ask families with children with chronic illnesses and very significant conditions to complete a survey, we are asking them to do just one more thing -- and we knew we could make it easier and worthwhile.”
Leader rounding has a personal touch, seeing leaders pop into care meetings to ask 2-3 consistent questions. It’s more spontaneous, timely and more conducive to an honest conversation. It can also happen at any time during a patient or family’s journey at CHEO and most importantly, it’s preventative. “People are really open to sharing their thoughts with us off the cuff,” says Naomi. “We ask how are things going in the moment, what do you want us to know? It’s an effort to get upstream a little bit and hear what is working and what they want to make sure we continue doing or adjust.”
Another great component of leader rounding is real time results. “If I hear the feedback and it’s something where I can make the change instantly, then I implement it right away. Or I can say thank you, this is what we are doing to correct that.”
Giving face to face feedback isn’t always easy. An important aspect of leader rounding is that it allows families to have a comfortable conversation with someone who is not their physician or nurse. “Sometimes people don’t believe that it will be safe to give feedback and it won’t impact their care,” explains Naomi. “So because I am not a care provider, it doesn’t impact the therapeutic relationship that they have with their team.”
Naomi loves hearing all the positive things families say about a member of their team. When this happens she passes on the compliment right away. “When someone is recognized for having gone really above and beyond, you want to make sure they get acknowledged. I take that feedback and send it out the same day to the team member or team.”
Introduced a little over a year ago, Naomi has completed close to 30 leader rounding visits on the 4North Hematology/Oncology unit, Medical Day unit (MDU) and Dialysis unit where she says each person’s experience is unique. A leader rounding interaction can take from 10 minute to one hour, depending on the person. “One of the questions is ‘What would you like me to know that I have not asked?’” says Naomi. “Sometimes that can open up the flood gates. People want to share what is really important to them and so it’s good to hear and important to listen.”
To date, the feedback from leader rounding has been very insightful according to Naomi. She gives an example around role clarity in the MDU. “Patients in MDU usually have quite a big team and part of the work we have been doing is around role clarity. Our team had perceived that role clarity was a significant issue for families and what we discovered is patients and families don’t think it’s an issue at all.”
Where does all this information go? After speaking with a family, Naomi doesn’t waste any time in relaying her findings. “We feed the information to our team very quickly,” she explains. Pertinent feedback is showcased in the team’s monthly newsletter and next steps are sent to the whole team.
If you are ever approached by Naomi or other leaders in the Hem/Onc department while at CHEO, we hope you will participate and take a few minutes to share your thoughts. We will always listen and put your feedback to great use.