ImERSE (Improving Experience through Regular Shadowing Events).

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Medical Education
• Quality Improvement

Background:

• Systematic operational quality improvement strategies are scarce within the NHS.
• Numerous reports exist of isolated departmental improvements, but a cohesive organizational strategy is lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the development and implementation of a novel tool for large-scale patient experience data collection.
• To combine patient and family-centered care (PFCC) with quality improvement (QI) methodologies.
• To establish a systematic organizational strategy for enhancing healthcare delivery.

Main Methods:

• Utilized medical students to shadow patient journeys for comprehensive data collection.
• Developed the ImERSE (improving experience through regular shadowing events) approach.
• Applied the ImERSE approach to gather insights into patient care experiences.

Main Results:

• The ImERSE approach facilitates large-scale data collection on patient care experiences.
• It integrates patient and family-centered care with quality improvement initiatives.
• The method proved adaptable across different healthcare areas for identifying improvement priorities.

Conclusions:

• The ImERSE approach offers a systematic strategy for organizational improvement in healthcare.
• It enhances patient and family-centered care and provides unique medical education opportunities.
• The method benefits patients, families, students, and healthcare provider organizations.