HBF Patient Pulse

As a not-for-profit health fund, our focus is on our members’ health and wellbeing.

We believe there is an important role for us to provide a voice to our members to share their hospitalisation experience and outcomes of their care.

Improve care quality

Insights from HBF Patient Pulse can help hospitals and doctors identify strengths and areas for improvement in patient care, guiding initiatives that continuously enhance the quality of care.

Enhance patient satisfaction

By sharing the collective patient experiences and outcomes of HBF members, hospitals and doctors can make better informed decisions that directly impact patient satisfaction and overall hospital experiences.

Drive positive outcomes

PROMs (Patient Reported Outcome Measures) have been designed to provide information about treatment effectiveness, a valuable measure in helping to achieve better health outcomes.

How HBF Patient Pulse works

After a hospital admission, eligible members will receive an email inviting them to complete questionnaires about their hospital experience. Since we’re also measuring recovery post hospital discharge, eligible members will receive a number of tailored surveys over a key period of recovery; the hospital treatment will shape the questions members receive and number of questionnaires.

Working with an independent partner, all the data is collated and using relevant measurement tools, reports will provide us with deeper understanding of the effectiveness of care received which then can be shared with doctors and hospital providers, enabling a continuous cycle of improvement in health care.

Is the survey anonymous, will my nurse/doctor/specialist know it’s me?

Answers will be completely anonymous, and data reported back to hospitals and doctors will not include your details.

Do I have to complete the survey?

HBF Patient Pulse is an optional survey. There are currently limited ways to get clinical feedback back directly from patients – this initiative enables a continuous cycle of improvement in health care.

To manage or find out more about your preferences on what type of communications you receive from HBF, visit the Member Communications Preference Centre via myHBF.

What information is HBF sharing?

To conduct the most relevant surveys, HBF will share your name, email, mobile number, and details about your hospital admission, including the hospital, attending doctor, and the reason for your admission, with our partner. Both HBF and our partner maintain a Privacy Policy which adheres to the Privacy Act and Australian Privacy Principles (APP’s).

Some hospitals send surveys, why is this one different?

HBF Patient Pulse is different as it assesses the patient experience and outcome of hospital treatment from the patient's viewpoint, including aspects such as communication, environment of care, physical function, emotional well-being, and quality of life.

Who is HBF partnering with to deliver HBF Patient Pulse?

We have partnered with Insight Actuaries, an independent leading analytics organisation in the Australian healthcare market who have developed the PREMs and PROMs platform, Voice of the Patient. They strive to support a better health system by measuring what matters most to patients, leveraging information and data to drive more informed decisions and improvements.

‘PREMs’ stands for Patient Reported Experience Measures, capturing a patient’s experience of care following hospitalisation.

‘PROMs’ stands for Patient Reported Outcomes Measures, a measure on treatment effectiveness following hospitalisation.

What Are Patient-Reported Experience and Outcome Measures?

Patient-Reported Experience Measures (PREMs) and Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) are tools used to capture patients' perspectives on their care and the outcomes of their treatments.

A PREM focuses on aspects such as the quality of communication with healthcare providers, the environment of care, and overall satisfaction. A PROM assesses the effectiveness of treatments from the patient's viewpoint, including aspects such as physical function, emotional well-being, and quality of life.

How will HBF Patient Pulse work?

We are proud to be working with our partner, Voice of the Patient, to deliver the HBF Patient Pulse program. Our partner is an independent organisation which partners with several world-renowned health outcome organisations, utilising the most up to date and relevant outcome measurement tools.

When an eligible HBF member has a hospital admission, we share the information with our partner who use advanced technology to then send the appropriate questionnaires for that admission. As PROMs measure outcomes, several surveys are sent following discharge to capture feedback over the key period of recovery.

Look-out for the survey email from around 4 weeks after you have returned home from hospital.

Who can participate?

Unless they opt-out, any member 18 years old or over, with HBF hospital cover, who has had a recent in scope hospital admission within WA is considered eligible to be part of the HBF Patient Pulse program.

HBF will be using hospital admissions data from 1st November 2024. This means that if you were discharged from hospital after 1 November 2024 and do not opt out, you may be asked to participate.

What if I don't want to participate?

If at any point you do not want to participate in the HBF Patient Pulse program, you can choose not to respond to the invitation or not receive future invitations by opting out of receiving 'Ideas and Input' communications either through related correspondence or via the Member Communications Preference Centre in the MyHBF portal.