National Research (NASDAQ:NRC) used a recent NRC Health webinar to present research suggesting that patient rounding is associated with higher patient loyalty, with much of the effect tied to communication and trust.
The webinar, titled “Rounding that Resonates: How Better Communication Drives Loyalty and Trust,” featured William England, researcher at NRC Health, and Katie Haifley, Director of Product for Rounding at NRC Health. The session focused on why rounding appears to improve patient experience outcomes, rather than simply whether it works.
“Across the organizations, the gap varied,” England said. “There was a wide range, a few outliers, but typically the gap was around 15 to 20 percentage points, and on average it was 20.”
Rounding Tied to Environmental and Interpersonal Gains
England said the analysis showed large gaps not only in loyalty scores but also in operational and environmental domains, including quietness, responsiveness, cleanliness and food quality. He noted that not all organizations asked the same questions, making cross-partner comparisons more difficult.
The study also found meaningful improvements in interpersonal areas such as trust, listening, clear explanations, courtesy and respect. England said those findings suggest rounding has a “holistic impact on experience” across both environmental and interpersonal factors.
However, NRC Health’s modeling indicated that interpersonal factors were the strongest predictors of likelihood-to-recommend scores. England said a logistic regression analysis showed trust, clear explanations, listening, courtesy and respect were stronger predictors than rounding itself, although rounding still emerged as statistically significant.
That led researchers to examine whether rounding may influence loyalty indirectly by creating conditions that support better communication and greater trust.
Trust and Communication Explain Part of the Effect
England said NRC Health conducted a decomposition analysis to understand how much of the rounding effect could be explained by trust and communication factors. The analysis began with rounding as a predictor of likelihood-to-recommend scores, then added trust and communication variables one at a time.
“What we found is that trust and communication explain about 40% of the effect that rounding has on likelihood to recommend,” England said. “It’s a good start. It’s clearly not the end of the story.”
He said more than half of the observed effect remained unexplained by the available data. Potential additional factors could include responsiveness, quality and safety, issue resolution or other areas that were not captured in the data set.
England said the findings support a framework in which rounding creates more opportunities to engage patients, which can improve communication. Communication, in turn, is strongly correlated with trust, and trust was described as the strongest predictor of positive likelihood-to-recommend scores.
Company Emphasizes Quality of Rounding Interactions
Haifley said the research supports a shift in how healthcare organizations think about rounding, from a task-based process to an experience-focused interaction.
“For years, I think rounding has been operationalized as a checklist,” Haifley said, citing questions such as whether the round happened, whether frequency targets were met and whether a script was followed. She said the research suggests the quality of the interaction matters more than the existence of the round alone.
Haifley said organizations should ask not only whether they are rounding but also what rounding is producing. She pointed to outcomes such as whether patients feel heard, understand what is happening and have confidence and trust in the care team.
She also said many organizations are recognizing that rounding on every patient every day may not be realistic given leader capacity and competing operational demands. As a result, she said, there is growing focus on the quality and depth of time spent with patients.
Ambient Listening Highlighted as Support Tool
Haifley also discussed NRC Health’s ambient listening feature built into its rounding platform. She said the technology may help leaders remain present during rounds by reducing the burden of documentation.
According to Haifley, early results from selected partners using ambient listening showed a 15-point reduction in perceived device distraction in a qualitative survey. She said users also reported increased confidence in using artificial intelligence during patient interactions and greater confidence in capturing what matters most.
Haifley said teams using the feature are moving from short, transactional notes to more context-driven narratives, with more rounds including comments and patient concerns being captured for later review and process improvement.
“Our goal is to not automate empathy, but to create more capacity for it,” Haifley said.
Q&A Focuses on Training and Metrics
During the question-and-answer portion, Haifley suggested organizations equip rounders by pairing high performers with colleagues who have opportunities to improve. She also recommended co-rounding and using skills labs to practice interpersonal skills before employees conduct rounds with patients.
Asked what metrics organizations should monitor, Haifley said leaders should evaluate the quality of rounds, documentation, the extent to which questions are being answered and whether certain questions repeatedly generate negative or neutral responses. She said those signals can identify areas for process improvement and opportunities to move patients from an “okay” or “fine” experience to a stronger one.
England said NRC Health plans additional research, including a qualitative consortium with rounding partners to better understand how rounding functions inside organizations.
About National Research (NASDAQ:NRC)
National Research Corp (NASDAQ: NRC), also known as NRC Health, is a healthcare analytics and performance improvement company specializing in patient and employee experience measurement. The company’s cloud-based platform enables healthcare providers to collect real-time feedback through patient satisfaction surveys, post-discharge outreach, and employee engagement tools. NRC Health integrates clinical, operational and financial data to deliver actionable insights that support quality improvement initiatives and value-based care programs.
Since its founding in the early 1990s and headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska, National Research has expanded beyond its regional roots to serve more than 1,600 hospitals and 12,000 care sites across the United States and Canada.
