The Advisory Board Co. has released a report entitled “Data-Driven Insights for Your 2017 Employee Engagement Strategy” that shows how hospitals and health care systems can improve patient satisfaction.

"The latest data from hospitals working with Advisory Board on employee engagement show that institutions can throw away three traditional excuses for middling or lagging performance," Sarah Rothenberger, managing director of Advisory Board Survey Solutions, said in a statement. "Improvement is possible from any starting point, and higher employee engagement correlates with stronger performance on patient satisfaction and culture of safety measures at the organization level."

According to the study, better employee engagement improves performance. Engaged employees are 1.5 times more likely to receive top performance ratings than employees who are labeled as “content.” And these engaged employees are 3 times more likely to receive the top ratings than disengaged employees.

"As hospitals and health systems undergo large change management initiatives around transitioning to value-based care and reducing unnecessary care variation, they should not overlook the role of employee engagement," John Johnston, national partner for consulting at Advisory Board, said. "The data show the steps every organization can take to improve their own engagement and drive successful care transformation."