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Changing perceptions is cost-efficient and is as easy as taking a step back,
walking the hospital with fresh eyes, and imagining what you as a patient
would perceive just by looking around or what you as a caregiver or administrator could do to refresh the working environment.
Over communicate with patients
Feeling "in the loop" can help patients feel more at ease. By explaining
your role as a clinician in relation to others providing care, detailing the
referral process and noting when a patient's question falls outside of your
expertise, you're keeping patients in tune with what they need to know and
making them more comfortable.3 Being that patients are ill, in a new environment and don't speak the jargon, they are at the most vulnerable state.
Patients are often too scared or not comfortable enough to ask questions;
by being forthright with information, you are educating them and helping
them understand and become more responsible for their own care.
Follow-up
Direct and swift follow-up with patients, either post-discharge or release
from the emergency department, is one of the most crucial tactics in managing patient populations, chronic disease and patient perceptions. While it may
seem cumbersome, scaling patient populations by risk and acuity can help
make the workload more feasible. Following up works to boost patient medication and instruction compliance, improve the post-discharge patient experience, manage care coordination and prevent unnecessary readmissions, all
of which aides in improving patient satisfaction and quality care measures,
and in turn shields reimbursements. One of the most valuable outcomes
follow-up calls provide is the opportunity your organization has to gather
qualitative comments and feedback about patients' stay experience.
Improving patient access, boosting morale, finding innovative improvements, changing perceptions, overly communicating and following-up
consistently throughout your hospital, system or ACO can largely aid inpatient and employee satisfaction, engagement and perception. Empower
your hospital to care for the care-giver and empower staff to think how
they can innovatively do the best possible. Reform calls for reform. Have
you assessed your readiness? n
Footnotes:
Association of American Medical Colleges, Addressing the Physician Shortage Under Reform, April 2011; https://www.aamc.org/newsroom/reporter/
april11/184178/addressing_the_physician_shortage_under_reform.html
1
The Huffington Post, The Really Scary Invisible Gorilla, Jan. 2013;
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wray-herbert/the-really-scaryinvisibl_b_2574791.html
2
KevinMD.com, Guiding Patients Through Fragmented Health Care, May 2011;
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/05/guiding-patients-fragmentedhealth-care.html
3
Nicole Nicoloff is vice president of market strategy and innovation at BerylHealth,
a technology-based patient experience company. Previously, she served as the Network
director of exceptional patient experience and family experience at Community Health
Network.
Orlando, FL • April 2-4, 2013
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has declared Rx Drug Abuse a national epidemic.
As family physicians, you are on the front lines of treating this epidemic and you see every day its impact on
our society. The only national conference devoted exclusively to Rx Drug Abuse is coming to Florida.
www.NationalRxDrugAbuseSummit.org
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