Founded in 1979, the Maryland Food Bank provides six million meals a year in Maryland through its partnership with nearly 1,200 soup kitchens, pantries, shelters, and community-based organizations. Learn more about their work.
Client experience survey—and new "Quality Loop" for clients
05.24.17
Our fall 2016 client experience survey taught us a whole lot about what we’re doing right—and where we can improve. So moving forward, we’ll conduct the client experience survey every six months and use the results to inform how we can improve our services and care. Following each survey, our quality team will develop goals based on key survey findings, and then implement action items to help us reach those goals by the time the next survey rolls around.
And guess what? The next survey is now rolling around. On Thursday, June 1, we will kick off the spring 2017 client experience survey, and over the course of a few weeks, clients will be able to take the survey over the phone or online at any of our clinics. Please see the survey schedule for our Downtown, West Baltimore and Baltimore County sites below.
Here’s what is also new: With the kickoff of the latest client survey, we’re launching what we’re calling the Quality Loop. The Quality Loop is a bulletin board in the 421 Fallsway clinic lobby where we will communicate with clients on an ongoing basis about what we’re hearing from them, and how we’re using that information to improve our practice. Through surveys, focus groups, the feedback box—we ask our clients for a lot of information, a lot of the time! But we’re not great at circling back with them and letting them know what we do with all that information. So with the Quality Loop, we’re going to start doing that, and we’re kicking it all off with the fall 2016 client survey results and the goals we’ve set based on those results. In coming weeks and months, we’ll also share with clients what we’re learning through our PI (performance improvement) work, and what we’re learning from the feedback box, and so on. So, please keep an eye on the board and encourage clients to do the same. And we look forward to building these at all our sites in the months ahead.
Now back to the upcoming survey and those goals. We’ve taken what we learned from the last client survey and set goals for each of our three clinic sites. Our hope is that when we crunch the upcoming survey results in late June and July, we’ll be able to tell you and our clients that we met those goals and improved in key areas. You may recall that after-hours access to providers and wait times (and bathrooms!) were big ones. To that end, our goals…
Downtown and West Baltimore: Help clients better reach a provider after hours
You might remember that during our last survey, only 32% of clients said they can reach their providers when the clinic is closed. So, at the Fallsway and West Baltimore clinics, we’re implementing ways to better connect our clients so that their calls are answered right away. This includes educating clients about who to call after-hours, and making sure calls are rerouted appropriately when it’s late.
GOAL: Increase the score from 3.24 to 4 at the downtown clinic and from 2.8 to 4 at the West Baltimore clinic on the question “I can reach a provider when the clinic is closed.”
Baltimore County: Cut back wait time
Clients also told last time around that wait times are too long and can deter them from seeking the care they need. That’s why we’re working with our unit clerks and providers to pinpoint areas where we can cut back some of that wait time. First up: We’re going to alert providers as soon as a walk-in client arrives and is added to the schedule to see if this decreases the wait time.
GOAL: Increase the score from 4.11 to 4.5 on the question “When I walk into the clinic without an appointment, the wait time is reasonable.”
Our Next Survey is June 1-June 23
Keep an eye out for volunteers who will be out and about asking clients to take the survey in some of our clinic lobbies. You can help increase participation by giving clients the heads-up about the survey dates and letting them know where and why to take it.
- 421 Fallsway: June 1-June 23
- West Baltimore: June 1-June 16
- Baltimore County: June 1-June 16
Stay tuned to see how well we’re doing at meeting these goals in a few months!
More Recent News
11.15.24
More than a quarter of all client visits to Health Care for the Homeless are with case managers. Presented below is one day in the life of Case Management Coordinator Adrienne Burgess-Bromley, who has been with the agency for 16 years.
2677
10.30.24
Baltimore, you are rockstars! On the sunny first Saturday of November, 300+ runners, walkers, friends and volunteers took over Patterson Park for the 10th Annual Rock Your Socks 5K! We danced, cheered and enjoyed a festive race village complete with coffee, bagels, donuts, a bounce house and easy ways to engage with community partners.
2672
10.29.24
Since opening Sojourner Place at Oliver in 2022, our affordable housing development team has been busy laying the groundwork for more affordable housing in Baltimore through a newly formed subsidiary under Health Care for the Homeless called the HCH Real Estate Company.
2670