Patient Experience Survey

1. Why am I receiving an email invitation from Sunnybrook to complete a survey?

Your feedback is important to us. One of our values is Excellence, which states: ‘We will exceed the expectations of our patients and their families by anticipating their needs, strengthening patient engagement, improving access to care, and ensuring the quality and safety of care.’ One of the many ways we make this possible is by placing the patient experience at the core of everything that we do. This includes listening to and making changes informed by our patients’ experiences through mechanisms such as surveys.

2. What does the survey invitation look like?

3. What if I don’t want to complete the survey?

You do not have to complete the survey. You may ignore or delete the survey email invitation, as well as any reminders you receive to complete the survey. The survey link is active for seven days before expiring.

In the survey invitation, you may also choose to unsubscribe. Alternatively, you can contact the Office of the Patient Experience to let them know you do not want to receive this survey in the future.

Phone: 416-480-4940; Email: patient.experience@sunnybrook.ca

4. Is Sunnybrook the only hospital sending this survey?

This initiative was undertaken by the Ontario Hospital Association and is a new strategy for working collectively to measure the hospital patient experience in Ontario. Other Ontario hospitals are also participating in sharing this survey with selected patients.

5. Which patients are receiving this survey at Sunnybrook?

Patients who have provided an email address at registration, and have been discharged from one of our acute in-patient units or our emergency department may receive an email invitation to complete the survey.

6. Are the answers I provide secure online?

Yes. Qualtrics is a company hosting a cloud-based software platform for experience management and measurement. Qualtrics offers a secure and modern tool for data collection and analysis.

Through these surveys, it will be necessary to load a minimal amount of Personal Health Information in Qualtrics (i.e, where and when health services were provided and email addresses), but this is done to enable patient outreach.

The Qualtrics platform is widely used by healthcare and other organizations in Ontario and around the world. If you have questions about Qualtrics or the privacy of your health information, please contact patientexperience@oha.com.

7. What will Sunnybrook do with the survey results?

The survey results are very important to Sunnybrook and will enable continuous improvement and enhanced service and care delivery. The results will become part of Sunnybrook’s process of evaluating and reviewing the hospital experience, and will help us learn where to focus and develop strategic solutions.

8. What questions will be asked?

Sunnybrook will be launching two surveys developed and provided by the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA):

Admitted patients who were in our acute care units will be asked nine questions about their stay at Sunnybrook:

Do you feel that there was good communication about your care between doctors, nurses and other hospital staff? (Never, Sometimes, Usually, Always, Don’t Know/Not sure)
During this hospital stay, did you get all the information you needed about your condition and treatment? (Never, Sometimes, Usually, Always)
Did you get the support you needed to help you with any anxieties, fears or worries you had during this hospital stay? (Never, Sometimes, Usually, Always, Not applicable)
Were you involved as much as you wanted to be in decisions about your care and treatment? (Never, Sometimes, Usually, Always)
Were you able to get a member of hospital staff to help you when you needed attention? (Yes, always, Sometimes, No, never, I did not need attention)
Before you left the hospital, did you have a clear understanding about all of your prescribed medications, including those you were taking before your hospital stay? (Not at all, Partly, Quite a bit, Completely, Not applicable)
Did you receive enough information from hospital staff about what to do if you were worried about your condition or treatment after you left the hospital? (Not at all, Partly, Quite a bit, Completely)
Overall … (Please circle a number) 0 (I had a very poor experience) to 10 (I had a very good experience)
What else would you like to say about this inpatient experience? (Please do not include any names, contact information, or identifying information.)

Patients who received care in the emergency department will be asked these nine questions:

During this emergency department visit…

If you had a long wait, were you told why? (Yes, No, but I would have liked a reason, No but I did not mind, Don’t know/Can’t remember, I did not have a long wait)
How often did care providers treat you with courtesy and respect? (Never, Sometimes, Usually, Always)
How often did care providers explain things in a way you could understand? (Never, Sometimes, Usually, Always)
Did you feel that there was good communication about your care between doctors, nurses and other hospital staff? (Never, Sometimes, Usually, Always, Don’t know/Not sure)
Did you get the emotional support you needed to help with any anxieties, fears or worries you had during this hospital visit? ((Never, Sometimes, Usually, Always, Not applicable)
Did care providers do everything they could do to ease your discomfort or symptoms? (No, Yes, somewhat, Yes, mostly, Yes, Not applicable)
Did you receive enough information from hospital staff about what to do if you were worried about your condition or treatment after you left the hospital? (Not at all, Partly, Quite a bit, Completely)
Overall … (Please circle a number) 0 (I had a very poor experience) to 10 (I had a very good experience)
What else would you like to say about this emergency department experience? (Please do not include any names, contact information, or identifying information.)

Optional Demographic Questions following each survey:

The next set of questions is about you. This information will only be used to group our results.

DEM1. How do you describe your gender identity? (Check all that apply) - Genderfluid or genderqueer Man Nonbinary Transgender man Transgender woman Two-Spirit Woman Questioning or unsure Another gender identity (please specify): ______________ Prefer not to answer
DEM2. How do you describe your sexual orientation? (Check all that apply) Asexual Bisexual Gay Lesbian Pansexual Queer Questioning or unsure Same-gender loving Straight/Heterosexual Two-Spirit Another sexual orientation (please specify): ______________ Prefer not to answer
DEM3. Do you identify as First Nations, Métis and/or Inuk/Inuit? (Check all that apply) Yes, First Nations (status or non-status) Yes, Metis Yes, Inuk/Inuit No Do not know Prefer not to answer
DEM4. Which of the following best describes your racial or ethnic group? (Check all that apply, e.g., if you are mixed race) Arab, Middle Eastern or West Asian (e.g., Afghan, Egyptian, Iranian, Lebanese, Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, etc.) Black (e.g., African, Afro-Canadian, Afro-Caribbean, etc.) East Asian (e.g., Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese, etc.) Jewish Latin American (Hispanic or Latin American descent) South Asian (e.g., Bangladeshi, Indian, Indo-Caribbean, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, etc.) Southeast Asian (e.g., Filipino, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Thai, Indonesian, etc.) White (e.g., European descent) Another race/ethnic group (please specify): _______________ Do not know Prefer not to answer
DEM5. What language do you feel most comfortable speaking in with your healthcare provider? (Check all that apply) Albanian Amharic Arabic ASL (American Sign Language) Bengali Bulgarian Burmese Cantonese Czech Dari English Farsi French Georgian Greek Gujarati Hausa Hindi Hungarian Italian Karen Korean Mandarin Nepali Pashto Polish Portuguese Punjabi Rohingya Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Somali Spanish Swahili Tagalog Tamil Thai Tibetan Tigrinya Taishanese/Toishanese Turkish Twi Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Another language (please specify): _______________ Prefer not to answer Do not know.

9. What if I have questions about the privacy of my personal health information including my email?

You are welcome to contact the Sunnybrook Privacy Office.

By mail:
Sunnybrook Privacy Office
2075 Bayview Avenue Toronto, Ontario M4N 3M5

By telephone: 416-480-6100 ext. 61236

By email: privacy@sunnybrook.ca

10. I would prefer to contact someone about my experience rather than complete a survey.

You are welcome to contact the Office of the Patient Experience and share your feedback.

The team is available in-person at the Bayview Campus, and by phone, email or letter:

Phone: 416-480-4940
Email: patient.experience@sunnybrook.ca
Address: Office of the Patient Experience, 2075 Bayview Ave, Room C161, Toronto, Ontario, M4N 3M5; Available in-person Monday-Friday (regular daytime hours)

11. I already did a survey on the inpatient unit. Why am I being asked to do another one?

Many areas of the hospital have developed their own surveys because the feedback received helps our care teams better understand the needs of their specific patient population. All surveys are optional.

12. What languages does the survey come in?

The surveys are currently available in only English and French. The hope is to be able to offer this survey in other languages as soon as they are made available by the Ontario Hospital Association.

If you need help understanding the survey or would like to speak with someone directly about your experience as a patient, please contact the Office of the Patient Experience.

Phone: 416-480-4940; Email: patient.experience@sunnybrook.ca

13. I do not have email. Can I still participate in the survey?

Over the coming months, the Ontario Hospital Association plans to partner with a service provider to develop a survey process for our patients without email.

Patients, families and visitors are always welcome to contact the Office of Patient Experience to share their feedback about their Sunnybrook experience.

Phone: 416-480-4940
Email: patient.experience@sunnybrook.ca
Address: Office of the Patient Experience, 2075 Bayview Ave, Room C161, Toronto, Ontario, M4N 3M5; Available in-person Monday-Friday (regular daytime hours)

14. Who can I speak to if I have questions about this survey?

You can contact the Office of the Patient Experience if you have any further questions.

Phone: 416-480-4940
Email: patient.experience@sunnybrook.ca
Address: Office of the Patient Experience, 2075 Bayview Ave, Room C161, Toronto, Ontario, M4N 3M5; Available in-person Monday-Friday (regular daytime hours)