Becker's Hospital Review

Save the date! Becker's Hospital Review 6th Annual Meeting — May 7-9, 2015 — Chicago. Please call 800-417-2035 to register. Both of these experiences influence my work because I am re- minded that we want to be listened to and not made to feel like we are wrong or an annoyance when asking for something. This compels me to slow down and take the time to listen to patients, care givers and employees so that I may understand what and how I can best help them. TM: I've had many best experiences outside of healthcare, in- cluding Amazon, Zappos, Costco and some of my favorite local restaurants. I've also had many poor experiences from a variety of retailers and service providers. These retail and service experi- ences and many others are used to shape our efforts to create an exceptional patient and family experience. My current experi- ences in healthcare are largely centered on my three children. One of the most influential periods in my life was when I served as the primary caretaker for my ailing father a few years ago. Those positive and negative experiences continue to shape and influ- ence my work on a daily basis. TS: My best experiences have come from personalized services, in which I am surprised and delighted that someone remembered my personal preferences. My worst customer experiences are when I interact with employ- ees who don't seem to listen to me and I almost feel as if I'm inconveniencing them. By having all healthcare partners understand what makes good and bad patient and family experiences, we can connect better with our patients. Q: As you work to help your organization improve the pa- tient experience, what is the biggest challenge you face? LA: The challenge in helping improve the patient experience is the reality that patients come in with expectations about what is going to happen and they evaluate their cumulative experiences. Therefore, everything that happens along the way has an impact on the patient experience. In working in a large system, it's really thinking about how you can engage the workforce and support the front-line managers to support their staff. AB: One is being consistent and clear about the definition of the patient experience. There is a lot of ambiguity at times for people about it. For us, the definition is high quality of care in the context of patient satisfaction and high value. To me, it is very important to stand by and reinforce that definition. Sometimes you hear people say, 'Well if it's about making patients happy, then we'll just do what they want.' But it's not just about making patients happy, but about delivering an exceptional experience without compromising our professional values. Another challenge is making sure enough attention is paid to the caregiver. Their needs need to be honored, because their experience influences the patients' experiences. One thing I am observing is that healthcare used to be doctor-centered and now it is patient-centered. It really needs to be relationship-centered, because there are teams and communities in these healthcare relationships. We need to determine how we can reinforce, leverage and build these so we are achieving and advancing these goals. BC: The biggest challenge we are facing is how can we continu- ally create — across a large employee base — an understand- ing and sensitivity that the experience of patients and families is not just tied up in outcomes. Rather, it is also in how we deliver on those outcomes for every patient, every time. We all own the patient experience, but what goes into that experience is unique to each person. The health and well-being of our patients has to lead everything else, including their personal goals, beliefs and desires. Another dimension is the family and their desires, inter- ests and comfort. And then there is the dimension of those of us delivering on the experience and our own beliefs and motives, which in the course of a busy day can be ever-changing and at conflict. Those three dimensions have to be in concert and often this is not the case. How can we, as healthcare professionals, balance our focus and drive to deliver outcomes with the method by which we deliver those outcomes? Replicating the outstanding patient experience to each patient and their family consistently is our challenge. TM: As an integrated delivery system, this work goes well beyond the acute-care setting. The fact that our customers are measuring the 'end-to-end' journey through numerous touch points is the sin- gle biggest challenge. The best clinical experience can be tripped up by lack of a returned phone call, rude behavior or the absence of empathy at any point along the patient journey. The work of patient experience is about evolving an organization's culture to pivot on the customer and create demonstrable market differen- tiation. The challenge is a big one, but the return is very rewarding on many fronts. TS: The biggest challenge is that to improve patient experience, you need to start with improving staff and physician experience. Don't just focus on patient satisfaction scores and quick fixes that may not be durable. Invest in improving the work conditions and training of your physicians, nurses and staff, and as their experi- ence improves so will that of your patients. n "We often forget about people's identi- ties and what they bring with them to the hospital. When they become a patient, they risk losing that. People have complex lives, and it's important to remember this in the hospital." — Dr. Lisa Allen, Chief Patient Experience Officer, Johns Hopkins Medicine 17

• Cover