How CipherRounds helped Hartford HealthCare’s Windham Hospital Increase Patient Experience Scores by 11 points

Background

Hartford HealthCare’s Windham Hospital—a 58 bed community hospital in Willimantic, Connecticut—has always prioritized high-quality, safe care for every patient. But now, they’re gaining recognition for something extra: a game-changing approach that improved their patient experience scores, which has now been sustained over nine months.

The Challenge

The team at Windham Hospital knew their pen-and-paper rounding system wasn’t cutting it. Without real-time data or actionable reports, they couldn’t track how patients felt or how well staff were performing. To meet their goal of raising HCAHPS patient experience scores, they needed a digital solution that could deliver insights, improve processes, and elevate patient care.

The Solution: Enter CipherRounds

Incorporating CipherRounds wasn’t just a shift to a digital solution— it was a shift in strategy. Windham Hospital launched an initiative to pair routine care team rounds with leader-to-patient rounding. By adding leadership check-ins, patients experienced more frequent and meaningful interactions, seeing firsthand how teams worked together. The results? Patients noticed the collaboration and care, and scores for categories like “Visited by a Nurse Leader” and “Staff Working Together” started climbing.

CipherRounds empowered Windham Hospital to take a more intentional approach to rounding, introducing multiple touchpoints during a patient’s stay. While not every patient receives multiple rounds yet, since April 2024, most patients have been visited by a nurse leader at least twice. These visits are making a meaningful impact, with patients expressing their satisfaction through highly positive experience surveys. Leader-to-patient interactions appear to elevate experiences from “good” to “very good.”

Data shows that patients who experience multiple rounds—particularly those involving leadership—report higher scores in areas like “Visited by a Nurse Leader” and “Staff Working Together.” By building these layers of connection, Windham Hospital is laying the groundwork for long-term success.

Strengthening Team Alignment

With CipherRounds, leaders have their “finger on the pulse” of operations. They tracked patient feedback, staff performance, and trends over time, filtering by department, employee, or date. This transparency kept everyone aligned, ensuring care teams were conducting high-quality, purposeful rounds every day.
Leaders could identify patterns, celebrate successes, and address issues quickly. And because CipherRounds is easy to use, it seamlessly fits into their workflow, saving time while driving results.

“CipherRounds has transformed how our teams work together. The real-time data and shared insights keep everyone—from frontline staff to leadership—aligned and focused on delivering exceptional care. I’m so proud of how this tool has not only improved our processes but also strengthened collaboration, bringing us closer as a team
to drive better outcomes for patients and staff alike.”

Krista Monhollen
RN, Nurse Manager, Windham Hospital

Service Recovery in forms of Rounding

CipherRounds didn’t just improve scores—it also became a key tool for service recovery. Real-time alerts allowed leaders and care team staff to address concerns like room cleanliness or meal preferences by notifying Environmental Services (EVS) or Food and Nutrition teams.

Nursing leaders conducting regular rounds further enhanced recovery efforts, often addressing issues on the spot, such as adjusting room temperature, clarifying care plans, or escalating feedback to the appropriate teams when needed. By combining leader rounding with CipherRounds’ alerting capabilities, Windham Hospital ensured patients felt heard and supported, reinforcing their commitment to exceptional care.

The Results

Since implementing CipherRounds, Windham Hospital has seen consistent growth in patient satisfaction scores:

• • “Team Worked Together” scores jumped 11 points.
  • The number of “Good” responses decreased by 4–6 per month, while “Very Good” responses increased by the same amount.
  • Overall, their “Very Good” scores reached an impressive 80%.

The data tells a clear story: intentional leader rounding, supported by real-time insights, leads to better teamwork, higher scores, and a culture of care that keeps improving.

“I’m proud to see how Krista and Chelsea have managed to inspire a culture of accountability and commitment to leader-to-patient rounding for themselves and for their leadership team. Their connections to their patients and team members are what matter most to team cohesiveness and the experience of our patients.”

Michael Davis
Senior Director of Operations, Windham Hospital

With this foundation, Windham Hospital is shaping a future where patient connections drive care excellence.