Why Are Patients More Satisfied When the Whole Team Shows Up? The ACU care model and SIBR rounds perspective
Why Are Patients More Satisfied When the Whole Team Shows Up? The ACU care model and SIBR rounds perspective
Patient satisfaction remains one of the most challenging metrics for hospitals to improve consistently. Despite continuous effort, many healthcare organisations struggle to help patients feel genuinely informed, involved, and valued. Despite having the most caring staff, it's really about how care is structured and delivered that remains the common weakness.
Accountable Care Units (ACU™ care model) and Structured Interdisciplinary Bedside Rounds (SIBR® rounds) are an interconnected paired approach that has shown strong outcomes in transforming patient engagement by fundamentally changing how clinical teams communicate with each other and their patients.
The Problem with Traditional Rounds
Typically, ward rounds often happen about patients rather than with them. Consultants and specialists discuss cases in corridors or conference rooms, different care providers visit at unpredictable times, and information trickles and meanders through multiple handoffs. Frequently along the way the patient and their families, i.e. the people most invested in recovery, get left out of the conversations.
Research has shown that patients experiencing traditional rounds frequently get to participate less, along with other important care team members (Lopez et al., 2019). Research has shown that few clinicians demonstrate behaviours of collaborative decision-making, and strategies to elicit patient views are often not used (Redley et al., 2020).
What Changes with SIBR?
SIBR rounds brings the entire care team, physician, nurse, allied health professionals, and often family members, to the patient's bedside at a predictable time each day. Rather than discussing care plans in isolation, the team collaborates openly, explains what's happening in accessible language, and invites the patient and family to contribute, ask questions or correct misinformation (Stein et al., 2015). The plan for the day and plan for discharge are discussed every time, with clear next steps, redundancy plans and task allocation.
This promotes transparency and levels the playing field for all participants to ask questions and voice concerns in real time (Lopez et al., 2019).
What the Evidence Shows About Patient Satisfaction
The research is interesting. On a geriatric ACE unit, 100% of SIBR staff agreed they understood the patient plan for the day, compared to just 74% on traditional units. Similarly, 100% agreed SIBR improved patient safety, versus only 76% on control units (Gausvik et al., 2015).
Staff rated SIBR significantly better across all eight measured domains: teamwork, understanding of the care plan, addressing patient fears and worries, team communication, family communication, efficiency, safety, and job satisfaction. One staff member noted feeling part of a team dynamic that was genuinely invested in the patient—not just checking off a to-do list.
The qualitative data reinforces these findings. Families valued knowing when the doctors would be around, receiving explanations in plain English, and having a clear plan—even when that plan was simply acknowledging uncertainty (Gausvik et al., 2015).
Staff perceptions mirror these findings. Research from a geriatric ACE unit found 100% of SIBR staff agreed they understood the patient plan, compared to 74% on traditional units. Similarly, 100% agreed SIBR improved patient safety, versus 76% on control units (Gausvik et al., 2015). Informed patients require less attention because they understand what's happening (Clay-Williams et al., 2018).
Transforming Patient Engagement
Beyond satisfaction scores, SIBR fundamentally changes how engaged patients become in their care. Staff perspectives confirm this: 73% of clinicians reported that SIBR allows patients to be active participants, compared to just 28% for traditional rounds (Chow et al., 2019).
In paediatric intensive care, as family participation increased from 24% to 49%, family satisfaction improved significantly. Families reported that being included in rounds felt educational and helped them understand their child's care. The proportion of top responses on family surveys increased from 0.69 to 0.76 (Lopez et al., 2019).
Physicians noticed the difference too. Structured Interdisciplinary Bedside Rounds provided opportunities to understand patients' priorities and backgrounds, helping clinicians treat the whole person, their medical condition as well as their social and emotional needs (Mastalerz et al., 2023).
Why This Matters for Your Organisation
Improving patient satisfaction equates to better outcomes. Effective communication correlates strongly with quality-of-care ratings and reduces unnecessary calls and delays (Lopez et al., 2019).
The ACU model bundles SIBR with geographic physician alignment and unit-level leadership, embedding patient engagement into daily practice. Studies from Emory University Hospital demonstrate sustained improvements in both satisfaction and clinical outcomes (Stein et al., 2015), while a five-year study by Loertscher et al. (2021) demonstrated that geographic ACUs with daily SIBR can reduce both total and unexpected mortality.
In support of patient satisfaction and patient engagement
When patients understand their care plan, feel heard by their clinical team, and can know when decisions will be discussed and made, satisfaction naturally follows. SIBR and ACUs don't require additional resources, they seek to optimize the existing resources.
The evidence suggests that optimizing existing resources is achievable and worthwhile. As healthcare systems seek to put patients at the centre of care, ACUs and SIBR provide the means of making this a new normal on units.
References
