UAB Medicine
The collective intelligence gathered through Crowdicity will help UAB Medicine leadership and staff design solutions that help improve the patient experience. is looking for the next great idea. In particular, the next great idea to improve the patient experience, and patients themselves are being enlisted to help find it. Using a new web-based platform called Crowdicity, UAB Medicine is launching an “innovation challenge” to improve communication and create a system to ensure the voices of patients and their families are heard, and the issues they raise are addressed.
Crowdicity is open to all UAB Medicine patients, their family members and even employees. The first “innovation challenge” using the system is focused on improving communication during and after a hospital stay. After creating an account with Crowdicity, participants can go online to submit ideas, build on other ideas, and like or comment on suggestions shared by others.
“Instead of a survey where we just get post-care feedback, we’re actually posing interactive questions or challenges that give us a deeper understanding of what patients and families think about a particular issue,” said Chris Brainard, senior director of the UAB Medicine Office of Patient Experience and Engagement. “We know communication is a key area that impacts the patient and family experience, so this seemed like a great focus for our pilot project using the Crowdicity platform.”
The collective intelligence gathered through Crowdicity will help UAB Medicine leadership and staff design solutions that help improve the patient experience. The new platform will not replace the post-care surveys that patients receive after hospital and clinic visits, which we will continue to rely on for more detailed feedback about individual care experiences.
“We want to be leaders and innovators in the patient experience, both locally and nationally,” Brainard said. “In order to do that, we must have the ability to engage patients and their families in new ways and listen to them differently than we ever have before. Crowdicity can help us do that.”
Participants in the first Crowdicity innovation challenge on communication will be able to respond and give feedback to questions such as how UAB Medicine can help a patient better manage their health needs, or be better able to navigate the health care system. Patients will also be able to comment on effectively sharing information with family and how to feel more comfortable making health care decisions when not in the hospital.
The challenge will also provide opportunity for patients or family members to suggest the kinds of health care information they are most interested in receiving and provide feedback on the type and frequency of communications from health care providers during a hospital stay. “Our patients deserve the best care possible and the most positive experience,” Brainard said. “Having a better understanding of how we are doing in various areas will help us deliver on that mission.”
To create a Crowdicity account and begin sharing your ideas for improving UAB Medicine, please visit uabmedicine.org/myidea.