Becker's Hospital Review

68 CMO / CARE DELIVERY Why UCSF Health's patient initiatives don't feel like the flavor of the month By Anuja Vaidya S usan Pappas, division director, UCSF Health experience excellence at Uni- versity of California San Francisco Health, discusses the importance of being able to scale experience initiatives, the ben- efits of adopting Lean philosophy and why excellent patient experience requires com- mitment from the entire organization. Editor's Note: Responses have been lightly edit- ed for clarity and length. Question: What is the most important lesson you have learned about deliv- ering excellent patient experience? Susan Pappas: e two most important les- sons I have learned about delivering excellent patient experiences in my 35-year career is first, they must be deliberately designed into the cultural fabric of the organization and secondly, it takes the entire village to create them. Excellent patient experiences do not happen by chance. It takes an organizational commitment from the top down to make this a priority for everyone. ere must be a com- mitment to high standards of behavior, pa- tient-centered practices, recognition systems and a culture of continuous improvement to ensure patients receive the excellent experi- ences they desire and deserve. Q: What are some common missteps hospitals make in their patient expe- rience initiatives? SP: Some of the common missteps health- care organizations make in their patient experience initiatives are not having them aligned with the global organizational goals and not having the bandwidth,resourc- es and/or budgetary means to scale them across the organization once they find suc- cess with them. Some efforts end up feeling like the flavor of the month or year and lose traction once the regular monitoring of that effort weakens. Organizations that do not consider the con- tinuum of care fall victim to creating incon- sistency in the patient experience. Patients of- ten travel though many different areas within the healthcare system [where] they seek their care. When one area pays detailed attention to how they treat and care for their patients, yet another area pays little attention, patients, unfortunately, feel the difference. Q: What has been the most successful patient experience initiative at your organization? SP: I would say the initiative having the high- est degree of success and deep cultural change at UCSF Health is our Lean transformation journey we began over five years ago. UCSF made a strong investment in adopting the Lean philosophy and to introducing True North boards, problem-solving thinking, ac- tive daily management through regular hud- dles with staff that have positively catapulted our patient experience outcomes. Every day our staff are engaged in prob- lem-solving discussions that are influencing and enhancing the experiences of their pa- tients. Our CEO and entire executive leader- ship regularly attend True North rounds across our entire organization to get a bird's-eye view of the strong work supporting improvement in the patient experience pillar. Consistency and reliability in practice is our ultimate goal. I am proud to say our UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights as well as our Benioff Children's Hospital San Fran- cisco hospitals scored 93rd and 98th, respec- tively, in the Press Ganey national database in percentile ranking for the last three years in a row. For an academic institution, that is an enormous achievement. Q: What excites you most about the future of your role? SP: e collaborative nature in which leaders throughout our organization are banding to- gether to strengthen all of our efforts around quality, safety and patient experience. ere will always be a need for a patient experience strategic champion to amplify the voice of our patient's experiences within our organi- zation. I see my role as the constant catalyst and change agent that holds the privilege and burden of bringing awareness as well as con- science to humanizing the healthcare experi- ence in positive ways. n SUNY Upstate Medical University opens $11M simulation training center By Anuja Vaidya S UNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, N.Y., opened an $11 million simulation-based teaching center to improve patient safety and care de- livery. The 8,600-square-foot center offers health professionals and students the chance to train using simulations of medical emergencies. The center includes a simulated operating room; six simulated acute care rooms that can be con- figured into intensive care unit or outpatient rooms; two 16-person skills and task training rooms; and two debrief rooms. The center also has eight high-tech manikins that can be programmed to sim- ulate a wide range of medical complications, such as breathing difficulties and cardiac issues. "Simulation has been used in aviation for many years and has now been fully embraced in the education of doctors, nurses and many other healthcare pro- fessionals," said Lynn Cleary, MD, vice president for academic affairs at SUNY Upstate Medical University. "It is known to improve clinical competence of trainees and has been shown to improve patient care outcomes as well." Medical students can use the center to enhance their skills with hands-on train- ing, while faculty and healthcare providers can use the center to review train- ing protocols and test new operational or clinical processes. n

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