The MetroHealth System, founded in 1837 and based in Cleveland, Ohio, is a leading healthcare provider with more than 9,000 employees. This diverse organization partnered with Perceptyx to enhance its employee experience and safety culture through an innovative listening and action strategy. The new approach included transitioning from the traditional AHRQ Culture of Safety Survey to the Perceptyx Safety Culture Survey, which provides a focused understanding of safety perceptions coupled with crowdsourced ideas from staff.
Dr. Joseph Golob, Executive Vice President and Chief of Quality and Safety for MetroHealth, noted the difference: "We used to give another type of safety survey, which I think was 40 questions. We ran that internally. It was extremely tedious."
The Perceptyx survey allowed for a more inclusive experience addressing the needs of all staff. "With this, we had one survey that spoke to clinical as well as non-clinical staff. So you got the voice of everyone," said Stacey Booker, MetroHealth’s Director of Patient Safety.
MetroHealth's safety enhancement efforts were informed by ideas generated by their staff and prioritized through Perceptyx's crowdsourcing solution. This approach invites all staff to share and vote on ideas, quickly closing the gap from insight to action.
Dr. Golob praised the crowdsourcing component: "Although the first 14 questions were useful, crowdsourcing was by far the most useful, especially because we're so proud of having 11,000 employee votes, and seeing those top five insights that were voted to the top."
Booker emphasized its positive impact: "When we started to take a look at it, just on the first day you saw these great responses from the caregivers, who really wanted to be heard. And they had great value-added comments on how we could improve the culture of speaking up here at MetroHealth."
Dr. Golob further noted that the new approach boosted participation: "We went from a 25% response rate with the old survey to a 55% response rate with Perceptyx."
By acting on the priorities identified through employee feedback, such as psychological safety, professionalism, and its speak-up culture, MetroHealth expects to see significant improvements in subsequent surveys. Booker explained, "One of the things that we are working on organizationally is psychological safety. So the overarching system action plan will be around that and listening to people and feeling heard helps to enhance that."
"Now I actually have the right data to reinforce my points. I have data to say that the teams want to be more involved, so we have data to show them this. And it's robust data — 1,000 participants, 11,000 votes, and even a surgeon like myself can't challenge that data," said Dr. Golob.
While the Perceptyx Safety Culture Survey was different from prior safety surveys, MetroHealth was still able to draw comparisons. "There are very similar questions. So we were able to pull out the similar questions," said Dr. Golob. "They were slightly different in their wording, but we were able to do those comparisons."
Booker added, "When we used the prior vendor’s survey, we used three role-specific surveys. With Perceptyx, we could do one survey that spoke to clinical as well as non-clinical staff. Previously, we would hear, ‘Do I need to complete this survey?’ Because that person was in an administrative role or a non-patient-facing role. Now the answer is always ‘Yes, you do.’ It is inclusive. Everyone felt engaged."
As MetroHealth refines its culture of safety, its partnership with Perceptyx serves as a cornerstone of its strategy. The organization will continue exploring new ways to leverage the People Insights Platform’s capabilities, particularly in areas like psychological safety and professionalism.
Booker concluded: "I think the key thing to remember is that a survey like this is going to validate what you already know. You already have the thoughts as it relates to what it may be. This is just the validation letting you know you were correct. Now let's use our data to help make those changes, to make those differences."
In partnering with Perceptyx, MetroHealth revolutionized its approach to safety culture assessment and improvement. The platform's innovative crowdsourcing channel has empowered employees to surface and prioritize ideas directly from the front lines, ensuring that actions taken are not only data-driven but deeply resonant with staff. This ability to quickly gather, prioritize, and act on employee-generated ideas has created a virtuous cycle of engagement and improvement, which should, over time lead to tangible enhancements in both employee satisfaction and patient safety outcomes.
If you’d like to learn more about Perceptyx’s partnership with MetroHealth, read the full case study.