Community Health Network x Qualtrics

For the first time, Community can prove that a specific rounding conversation, on a specific day, with a specific patient, is associated with a measurably shorter stay and a lower chance of readmission and the relationship holds after controlling for age, race, gender, marital status, and geography. That proof is possible because real-time experience variables and outcome metrics now live in a single system. The relationships used to be inferred from research and white papers. Now they are visible at the unit level, in real time, and directly traceable to the rounds that produced them.

In the Emergency Department (ED), where Quality Rounds are less prevalent, Experience Rounds alone moved trust from 77.5% to 95.8% (+18.3 pp), perceived safety from 83.1% to 95.7% (+12.6 pp), and overall experience by 16 percentage points. Among inpatients, patients who received both a Quality Round and an Experience Round were more likely to agree Community is the best place to get healthcare, and more likely to say it is a place they trust. The relationships hold across every domain the rounding program is designed to influence.

The infrastructure behind that visibility is a fundamental system consolidation. Previously, rounding experience and outcome metrics lived in separate tools, one capturing what happened during the round, another capturing the experience after it. Bringing both into a single Qualtrics workflow integrated directly with Epic eliminated that gap. All rounds now live at the patient level in one system, with real-time electronic health record (EHR) data including census, patient profile, and clinical flags such as CAUTI or Fall Risk determining which rounds apply to each patient automatically. Care teams can document with audio, video, or photos when words don't capture what they need to communicate.

The shared Visit ID is what makes that link traceable. Community can now see in a single dashboard what happens to outcomes depending on whether a patient received no round, an Experience Round, a Quality Round, or both. Leaders see patterns dynamically, not in a monthly static report. A discharge readiness concern flagged on Tuesday becomes a targeted follow-up by Wednesday. Every rounding conversation now feeds back into a system that surfaces gaps, prompts follow-up within hours, and compounds into measurable improvement over time.

--> Read more about Community’s rounding story

In 2025, Community launched a Qualtrics Experience Agent on its Walgreens Appointment Scheduling website, where more than 4,300 patient views flow through monthly. The Agent identifies patterns of confusion, clarifies appointment status instantly, and offers on-the-spot booking assistance, turning patients who would have abandoned scheduling into patients who get care. It prevents patients from mistakenly believing appointments are already scheduled, protecting clinical capacity and reducing day-of cancellations and no-shows.

The same philosophy shapes how AI shows up in caregiver workflows. What once required hours of manual data review, comment analysis, and action plan creation now happens in minutes. Managers receive AI-generated summaries, identified themes, and recommended next steps, while maintaining the security and governance standards healthcare requires.

Community's approach to AI is governed by a dual-track framework. For clinical applications, strict human-in-the-loop requirements ensure AI provides augmented intelligence — pattern recognition, decision support, enhanced insight — but never replaces human medical judgment. For non-clinical workflows like patient navigation, administrative routing, and operational analytics, AI operates autonomously so patients and caregivers experience frictionless support.

What's next is the natural extension. A nurse manager will ask one assistant about staff payroll, patient feedback, and scheduling. A patient will text one number to reschedule, ask about a symptom, or request a refill. Every administrative burden removed is time restored to care. Every friction point eliminated is a chance for someone to seek care sooner.

--> Read more about Community’s Agentic story