Understanding the Experiences of Patients Accessing our Primary Care Services
Project Overview
Our Client Experience Survey provides a glimpse into patient experiences with Access Alliance’s primary care services. Each year we collect patient feedback to ensure service accountability, quality improvement, and evidence-informed practices. Patients are asked to rate their service experience in five areas:
- Satisfaction
- Accessibility (including virtual services)
- Equity
- Client safety
- Patient-centredness.
This report helps us to ensure that our primary healthcare services meet our diverse patient needs.
Our Client Experience Survey complements information from our Annual Client Activity Report, as well as our Annual Planning and Evaluation Report which provide additional information and evaluation of all Access Alliance programs and services.
What did we do?
- Survey Population: Patients who accessed primary care between November 20, 2023, and February 9, 2024.
- Sample Size: 474 completed surveys (41.4% in-person; 58.6% virtual).
- Data Collection Modes: Our survey used a mixed-methods approach – in-person, email (2,889 invitations), and phone (121 calls).
- Languages: Surveys were translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Farsi, and Tigrinya. Interpreter support was offered when appropriate.
- Demographics: The sample of respondents generally aligned with our overall client population and were predominantly aged 25-44 years (44.5%) and identified as female (58.9%).
What We Found/What We Learned
Systematic and participatory patient feedback processes contribute to our continuous service and program improvement.
Our patients are satisfied, and find our services accessible, equitable, safe, and patient-centred. Many described Access Alliance as a safe and welcoming environment, where they received quality care, treatment, and support which improved their health and well-being.
Patient feedback also gives insight into areas for improvement. There were few instances of patients expressing concerns related to patient safety, including reporting incidences where they felt providers were not listening to their concerns, delays in care as they were not able to get through the phone to make an appointment, and issues with the continuity of care and seeing different service providers.
Key findings include:
High Satisfaction:
- 97% of respondents rated services as excellent/very good/good.
- 97.3% definitely or probably would recommend Access Alliance to friends and family.
Accessibility:
- 83% received appointments on their preferred date.
- Most patients (98.1%) accessed services in-person
- Virtual care was appreciated for its convenience but there were issues such as unclear instructions or privacy concerns.
- Challenges also included delays in phone responses, limited appointment availability, and inconsistent communication.
Equity:
- 98.3% always feel comfortable and welcome at Access Alliance.
- Language barriers were mitigated through interpretation services.
Client Safety:
- 95.4% trusted their personal information was kept confidential.
Patient-Centeredness:
- 95.1% agreed staff treated them with dignity and respect.
- 90.3% said they were involved as much as they want to be in decisions about their care and treatment
- 92.4% agreed that their Doctor or Nurse Practitioner spent enough time with them during their appointment
- 82.3% know how to make a suggestion or complaint
How will we use this information?
Our survey reiterates the importance of our commitment and practice to respect cultural differences, individual needs, and preferences. We work to ensure patients understand and are included in decisions about their care and treatment plans. We understand the need to continue to offer different options for service access (including virtual).
We will maintain and sustain current practices to ensure the quality of our programs and services, and address the feedback provided to contribute to our continuous service and program improvement goals.
Project Updates and Knowledge Mobilization Activities & Products
View our Client Experience Survey infographic (download a PDF version):
Related work and research
Annual Client Activity Report 2023-2024
A snapshot of Access Alliance clients’ demographic attributes, service needs, and program interactions over the past fiscal year, to ensure accountability, to support evidence-informed organizational planning, and to improve quality.
Annual Planning and Evaluation Report 2023-2024
The goal of this report is to facilitate a learning framework for building and sustaining a healthy evidence-informed and evaluation-focused organization.
Building Capacity for Equity-Informed Planning and Evaluation
This project focused on building organizational level knowledge, commitment and capacity to routinely use a health equity framework and evidence geared at overcoming systemic inequities in healthcare access, healthcare quality and health outcomes.
Better Understanding for Better Health – 2024 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) for Taylor-Massey Oakridge
A CHNA gives us, as service providers, an opportunity to engage with communities and involve community stakeholders. It also provides recommendations for different community actors. At the individual level, a CHNA empowers communities to take action to address health disparities. At the organizational and community level it strengthens partnerships and provides information about changing needs that influence program and service changes. This promotes sustainable initiatives that lead to improved health and well-being for all residents. At the systems and policy level, it helps to reframe policy and practice guidelines based on real evidence from grassroots community research.
Patient Feedback Survey to Organizational Practice: Improving the Relevancy and Translatability of Findings
In 2021 we explored how surveys like our Client Experience Survey can be used to improve services in healthcare services. We identified three primary strategies:
- Engage clients in identifying survey items and quality improvement initiatives that are relevant and important to them.
- Offer learning opportunities and tailoring survey findings to improve staff comprehension and relevance to their care process and performance.
- Mandate formal priority setting and tangible action planning within a supportive organizational culture.