Healthcare company Zooms in for testing and education

At Premier Health Care Services, even a one-person marketing department can deliver big results with the use of Zoomerangs online survey software.

Premier Health Care Services, based in Dayton, Ohio is an Emergency Department physician staffing and management provider. The company contracts with 33 hospitals in the greater Midwest to meet the Emergency Medicine needs of the patients, physicians and hospitals they serve.

To keep up-to-date with the needs of their employees and customers, Premier Health Care actively solicits input and feedback. Prior to September 2003, Kathy Heizer, Director of Marketing, had been using hardcopy and phone surveys to gather market research information from their staff, potential employees and the hospitals they serve but she found that it was a time-consuming process.

When Heizer heard about Zoomerang, the online survey software, she was eager to try it. It looked like it was good for both the survey respondents and for me. Ease of use on both ends was a big reason to try it, she says. Heizer quickly found that with Zoomerang she was able to conduct key HR surveys as well as use the online survey software for educational and training purposes all from a one-person Marketing Department.

Confidentiality critical to employee survey
The first survey Heizer conducted was an Employee Satisfaction Survey for the companys Human Resources Department. She sent it to about 300 staff, mainly physicians and other medical personnel, and received a 50% response.

When the respondents completed the survey, they were directed to the companys web site, where they could enter their contact information in order to receive a gift. By keeping the survey and the entry form separate, we were able to maintain confidentiality, Heizer says. It was important that the survey was anonymous, so people would be completely honest with their answers. The results will be used to evaluate and enhance the companys administrative processes as well as personnel management practices.

The good response rate and professional look-and-feel of the survey meant that Heizer was able to deliver the evaluation that the company required, without the lengthy set-up time of traditional surveys.

Heizers positive experiences with Zoomerang led to a second survey, launched in January 2004. Developed with the HR department, this Employee Wellness survey asked staff about their stress levels and health concerns. The company will use the results to develop initiatives to help employees manage their overall wellbeing.

Use of survey software expanding to include education and training
Their third survey will move away from the traditional HR questionnaires to provide an educational component. Working with the companys Compliance Committee, Heizer is using Zoomerang to evaluate the staffs knowledge of key compliance requirements such as treatment procedures and the Patients Bill of Rights.

The structure of the evaluation will include scenarios that test the staffs responses to certain circumstances. Well present the reader with different compliance situations, and ask them what they would do, says Heizer. For example, the survey will offer the medical staff an incident where a patient is being treated for X condition, then Y occurs. The testing and education evaluation will offer four or five possible scenario responses that answer the question What would you do? The options will be in a multiple-choice format. Once the respondents submit their answers, theyll be offered the correct responses. This process allows the Compliance Committee to both test and educate its staff on an ongoing basis.

Heizer sees Zoomerang being adapted to more educational uses in the future. It makes the product even more versatile for us, she says.

Survey simplicity means that even small departments can deliver large results
Zoomerang has allowed Heizer to expand her offerings to the other departments. Im a one-person operation, she says. I dont have any staff under me, so set-up time and ease of use are critical to her. For the time it would take to set up a hardcopy or phone survey, I can complete a Zoomerang survey. I can get it up and running within a couple of hours. This product is so helpful. It eliminates the stress and aggravation of traditional surveys.