Messaging App Boosts Patient Satisfaction Scores to 97.5 Percent

Recently, eHST Editor Jane Weber Brubaker spoke with Patrick de la Roza, CEO of EASE Applications, to learn more about an application credited with raising patient satisfaction scores from 80 percent to 97.5 percent at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio.

“EASE” is an acronym for Electronic Access to Surgical Events. The EASE app is essentially a secure messaging app keeping a patient’s family members and loved ones up to date with the progress of a procedure.

Patrick de la Roza, CEO, EASE Applications

Asked how the app came about, de la Roza explains, “About three years ago, Dr. Hamish Munro, a pediatric anesthesiologist at Arnold Palmer Hospital, had a [patient with a] very nervous family. He decided to text them updates throughout the medical procedure. The reaction from the family was unbelievably positive. His partner, Dr. Kevin de la Roza (my brother), started texting families during surgery, too.

“People were unbelievably moved by simple updates letting them know what was happening throughout the medical procedure. They brought me on board and we realized we needed to create something that was more sustainable, something that would be HIPAA compliant and without using their personal phones. That was three years ago.”

Who on the OR team is in charge of communicating with the patient’s family and loved ones? De la Roza says, “It’s typically the circulating nurse that sends updates about every 30 minutes on what’s happening, so anything from when the patient first falls asleep, to we made an incision and the surgery is underway.”

Read our full article to see a video about the emotional impact of EASE—and learn why between 70 and 80 percent of families who have experienced EASE say it will influence their choice of hospital in the future: Digital Messages From the Operating Room Ease Patients’ Anxious Family Members.

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