In one of our recent studies, we found that nearly 50% of patients who desired emotional support during their hospitalizations reported that they did not always receive it. Not receiving such support is associated with poorer patient-reported care experiences, which research links to issues such as low adherence to treatment plans and ultimately worse clinical outcomes. Our project aims to improve patients’ emotional experiences during hospital stays, and thereby strengthen health care delivery, through organizational intervention. Our proposed intervention, which is based on findings from our prior studies of patient care experiences and co-designed with research site collaborators, consists of a human component paired with a technological (i.e., artificial intelligence-enabled) component. Together, these components are expected to enable assessment of emotional needs and enhanced emotional support at the times and in the forms hospitalized patients desire. We plan to test our intervention via a one-year field experiment with sites affiliated with a large medical center, evaluating the intervention using data from electronic records, surveys, and interviews of patients and hospital staff. Several industry stakeholders, especially hospitals, are expected to be interested in our results because the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), as well as other purchasers of health care, adjust hospital payments partially based on hospitals’ patient experience scores.…Read More
