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CASE STUDYConsumer voices at the forefront
Virtua Health's strategy for success
CASE STUDYConsumer voices at the forefront
Virtua Health's strategy for success
Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Today’s consumers have access to more information than ever before—and the power to make their own healthcare decisions. As a result, consumer insights have become a necessity.
From marketing strategies that hinge on a deep understanding of the consumer perception to patient experience initiatives based on unique needs and personal preferences, the voice of the consumer is a powerful driver in building long-term loyalty and financial success.
Consumer panels are one way to engage the community, offering a platform for sharing expectations, preferences, and insights that can be utilized to shape services and experiences.
But this type of consumer involvement—based not only on listening, but on acting—must be backed by strategy and a commitment to continually engage the right voices.
Enter Virtua Health.
Combining unwavering dedication to being a leading health system with deep insights and data through a partnership with NRC Health, Virtua Health has built a robust consumer engagement program that not only gathers valuable insights but also fosters a sense of community and trust among its patients.
This case study explores the key components and successes of Virtua Health’s approach to consumer engagement, including:
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Rapid growth and diverse representation. The highly successful Virtua Voice.Activated consumer panel has grown from 2,000 members to 45,000 members. This expansion has enabled Virtua leaders to gain diverse perspectives and actionable insights to inform operational decision-making.
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Impact on strategic decisions. The insights gathered through Voice.Activated and powered by NRC Health’s Community Insights have directly influenced the development of new services and operational improvements. For example, feedback from a targeted group of patients has contributed to how Virtua messages and promotes their new Crohn’s and Colitis Center, addressing a critical need for specialized care.
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Enhanced consumer trust and engagement. Virtua Health has built a strong sense of community and trust among its patients by maintaining continuous engagement with panel members through regular communications. This transparency and accountability are particularly valued by younger generations.
“It takes a lot of engagement, and it pays dividends, because then we’ll get higher engagement rates when we send out surveys, and higher participation rates as well.”
—Meagan Mackerer, Director Market Research and Insights, Virtua Health
“It takes a lot of engagement, and it pays dividends, because then we’ll get higher engagement rates when we send out surveys, and higher participation rates as well.”
—Meagan Mackerer, Director Market Research and Insights, Virtua Health
Background
Virtua Health’s leaders have made consumer involvement part of their foundation. Be well, get well, and stay well is Virtua’s mission; and the organizational promise to the community is centered around the consumer: Listening and connecting, at every touch point, we will be your partner in health for what matters most.
Virtua is the largest healthcare system in southern New Jersey with more than 15,000 colleagues who provide tertiary care, including renowned cardiology and transplant programs, complemented by a community-based care portfolio. In addition to five hospitals, 42 ambulatory surgery centers, and more than 400 other locations, Virtua brings health services directly into communities through Hospital at Home, physical therapy and rehabilitation, mobile screenings, and its paramedic program. Virtua is academically affiliated with Rowan University, leading research, innovation, and education at the Virtua Health College of Medicine & Life Sciences of Rowan University.
Building a network of consumers
Building a network of consumers
Virtua Voice.Activated has transformed Virtua Health into a more human-centric organization, ensuring the voices of their patients and community members remain at the forefront of their strategic decision-making. The online feedback community allows the organization’s patients, community members, and families to have a voice in designing its programs and services.
Establishing the robust Voice.Activated panel was a strategic process that involved leveraging NRC Health’s comprehensive suite of solutions. Initially, the program relied on manual outreach, but it gained significant momentum when Virtua Health integrated NRC Health’s patient experience outreach.
“Virtua is focused on truly understanding consumers to inform strategy. We are a dedicated listening organization across touchpoints and platforms.”
—Ryan Younger, Vice President of Marketing, Virtua Health
Meagan Mackerer, Virtua’s Director of Market Research and Insights, notes that “when we moved to NRC Health for our patient satisfaction surveys in 2020, a couple months after the pandemic started, we were able to recruit from there, and our numbers skyrocketed.”
This approach allowed Virtua to grow the panel from fewer than 2,000 members to 45,000 members, ensuring a diverse and representative sample of the community. Having such a reliable, robust panel is crucial for leaders to truly understand and meet the needs of their patients.
Key aspects of this partnership include:
Ryan Younger, Virtua’s Vice President of Marketing, emphasizes the evolving role of consumers in healthcare. “One of the biggest changes, frankly, is the role of the consumer, and the heightened decision-making that they make in healthcare,” he says.
By actively involving consumers in the decision-making process, Virtua tailors its services to better align with patient needs and preferences, ultimately enhancing patient experience and loyalty. Mackerer highlights the importance of this engagement. “If you want to effectively impact your consumers, your decisions can benefit from seeking their input,” she notes. “You can include them in the decision-making.”
This continuous feedback loop not only improves services but also fosters a sense of community and trust between Virtua Health and the community they serve.
Meagan Mackerer of Virtua Health showcases the Voice.Activated program. Courtesy @VirtuaHealth on YouTube.
Consumer experience tools to inform real decisions
Consumer experience tools to inform real decisions
With a sizeable panel, Virtua Health utilizes NRC Health’s Community Insights to bring respondents’ voices to the table in support of strategic and operational business decisions. NRC Health’s research experts partner with healthcare leaders to design custom panel surveys and analysis to quickly gather the data and insights needed to make informed decisions. This empowers Virtua’s consumers to directly influence important initiatives, from program design to understanding patient and family priorities.
These efforts have not only elevated patient experience and care at Virtua, but also fostered a culture of transparency and accountability, ensuring that feedback is valued and utilized effectively.
Here are four examples of these successes:
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Crohn’s and Colitis Center
(February–March 2024)
Background:
Virtua Health’s leaders identified a need for specialized care in gastroenterology, particularly for the organization’s Crohn’s and colitis patients. Through targeted surveys, they gathered detailed insights into patient experiences and needs.
Outcome:
Virtua learned that a dedicated care center was of greater interest to patients who are still discovering the right treatment plan. The feedback led to targeted messaging for a dedicated Crohn’s and Colitis Center, providing specialized care and significantly improving patient outcomes and satisfaction.
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Staff Responsiveness
(June-July 2024)
Challenge:
Understanding and improving staff responsiveness was identified as a key area for enhancing patient experience.
Approach:
Virtua Health conducted surveys to gather perceptions of responsiveness from both patients and caregivers, leading to actionable insights.
Impact:
The results informed strategic initiatives to improve staff responsiveness, aligning with upcoming changes in CMS metrics and enhancing overall patient care.
“We have conducted surveys to drive the patient experience including perceptions of responsiveness from both patients and caregivers,” says Younger. “This feedback provided actionable insights that helped us improve staff responsiveness, aligning with upcoming changes in CMS metrics and supporting improvements to patient care.”
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Internal Communication Channels
Objective:
To assess and improve internal communication channels to better engage and inform staff.
Method:
Surveys were distributed through various channels, including email and social media, to gather comprehensive feedback from employees.
Result:
The insights helped streamline communication strategies, ensuring that important information reached all staff effectively, thereby improving workforce engagement and reducing burnout.
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Continuous Engagement and Communication
Ongoing communications:
Virtua Health maintains continuous engagement with its panel members through regular communications and newsletters. This approach not only keeps the panelists informed, but also demonstrates that their feedback is valued and utilized.
Transparency and accountability:
By sharing how consumer feedback is applied, Virtua Health builds trust and transparency, which is particularly important among younger generations.
“It takes a lot of engagement, and it pays dividends, because then we’ll get higher engagement rates when we send out surveys, and higher participation rates as well,” says Mackerer.
Strategic collaboration for enhanced consumer engagement
Strategic collaboration for enhanced consumer engagement
The partnership between NRC Health and Virtua Health has been pivotal in enhancing Virtua Health’s consumer engagement efforts through the Virtua Voice.Activated program. This collaboration has provided Virtua Health with the tools and support they need to gather comprehensive consumer insights and drive strategic improvements.
“[NRC Health is] a great resource at building out surveys, sharing insights, and supplementing our specific targeted custom research,” says Mackerer. “Just the sheer volume, it’s not something we’d be able to run in house.”
“We think a lot about partnership. For me, that always means a group that is going to push us and allow us to push them because we do a lot better work when we have that give and take,” says Younger. “And [NRC Health] has the experience of so many different clients and knowing different best practices.”
NRC Health provides Virtua Health with a suite of tools and support that has been crucial in the development and expansion of Virtua Voice.Activated.
Related resources
Explore the resources below to take your consumer experience management to the next level.
Healthcare experiences are human experiences. NRC Health has built the most comprehensive experience management stack in the industry to create a game-changing platform that’s driving the most human healthcare experiences for everyone – from patients and caregivers to consumers and communities.
Learn more about NRC Health’s platform here or call 800.388.4264.
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©NRC Health. Select images featured in this case study have been provided by Virtua Health and are used with their permission.