Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

Special Focus: Improving HCAHPS and CAHPS scores 16 internal awards such as the Lasting Impressions Award, department baskets filled with goodies for associates to share and the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. There are other components as well, such as writing thank you notes to associates in recognition of a job well done, notes to patients thanking them for the privilege to provide their care and rounding that helps reinforce our service standards. Joy Graves-Rust, our patient satisfaction coordinator, is dedicated to working with leadership to interpret the data in a way that is meaningful and understandable. She helps them identify behaviors and activities that are indicated as having a direct impact on improving the overall patient experience. Paul Calkins, MD, Interim Chief Medical Officer, IU Health North Hospital (Carmel, Ind.): IU Health North has intentionally introduced certain behaviors as expectations. These include behaviors such as greeting individuals with a smile and accompanying visitors and guests to their destination whenever possible instead of simply directing them. Q: What are the most important factors influencing patient satisfaction? Ms. Broms: First, make sure that all the patients' expectations are met, from how they want their meals served to the kind of environment they want to receive care in. Learning what those expectations are and creating a plan around that is important. Creating a warm and welcoming environment is also important, particularly because patients are anxious when they come to a hospital. Another important factor is how the physicians communicate with them and how nurses communicate with them. Dr. Calkins: Treating patients as people, and making sure they know you consider them a person and not only a medical case or customer is important. So is hiring individuals who genuinely care and enjoy what they do. Joy Graves-Rust, Coordinator, Patient Satisfaction Measures, IU Health North Hospital (Carmel, Ind.): One of the greatest strengths of IU Health North Hospital has been doing what's right for the patient and family because it's the right thing to do. When done automatically with an intention that is authentic and not mandated, the experience has the potential to become transformational. From the beginning, executive leadership has lived the culture and has extended service not only to our visitors and guests but also to associates and volunteers. The impact of this must not be underestimated as it sets a standard and expectation that has become ingrained in the culture of IU Health North Hospital. Q: What are some of the challenges of improving patient experience? Ms. Breitfelder: I think all hospitals in the U.S. have to do more with less. All hospitals have to be very efficient with staffing, for example. The bar is also being raised because everyone is trying to improve patient satisfaction scores — you can't just meet expectations anymore, you have to exceed them. Patients are really looking for a 5-star hotel experience when they come to the hospital now. And the final challenge is keeping all your employees engaged. Mr. Yust: Changes are not immediate and instant. Improving the patient experience takes initiative, dedication and time. Ms. Graves-Rust: In the world of regulatory compliance, documentation and gadgets, it can be difficult to maintain perspective or take a step back and examine processes. Individuals from all areas of the facility — clinical care to support services — are busy providing the best in service and clinical care each and every day. The challenge then becomes how we identify improvement initiatives, and introduce or change behaviors that will allow us to step up our level of service in a way that's easily adopted, understood and integrated into the everyday routines the associates impacted. Q: How would you recommend overcoming these challenges? Ms. Breitfelder: First, you have to stay focused and keep an eye on your scores. Look at them weekly, if not more often. And I think you need to share the scores with all of your employees. Keep it transparent. Communication is key, and so is keeping your front-line employees engaged through celebrating successes not only at the hospital level but also at the unit level. Ms. Broms: It is really important that healthcare organizations take out processes that do not add value. Being creative in terms of new processes so as to keep patient satisfaction high is essential. We use the patient experience as a litmus test. If we are going to make change and if we quantify that it will result in a negative patient experience then we don't implement that change until we have a found a way to mitigate the negative patient experience, even if it is something that might save us money. Q: What advice do you have for healthcare organizations trying to improve patient experience? Ms. Breitfelder: One of the easiest things you can do is talk to hospitals with great scores. See what works for them and what you can incorporate into your own organization. The support needs to start at the C-suite level to improve patient experience. Then you need to set expectations for your facility and communicate the same message to everyone. When you do roll out process changes, you need to keep an eye out for consistency and continue to get employee input. At Columbus Regional, we have a value system put into place called ACE IT, which stands for attitude, commitment, enthusiasm, innovation and teamwork. We tell our employees the importance of ACEing IT every day. Jonathan Goble, CEO, IU Health North Hospital (Carmel, Ind.): Organizations should stop focusing on the patient survey numbers and genuinely focus on the corporate culture of their staff because doing so fosters a sense of respect and value from the organization. When the staff feels respected and valued by their organization, they respect and value the patient. n Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control E-Weekly Sign up today for the complimentary twice-weekly newsletter featuring the most current news, analysis and best practices on operating room clinical quality, safety, infection control and accreditation. To sign up, visit: www.beckersasc.com/clinicalquality

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