Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/593112
71 PRACTICE MANAGEMENT THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Poor patient experiences are also linked to poor quality, and we know quality needs to be improved. A 2012 report by the Leapfrog Group brought the quality problem home for me. One in four Medicare patients will leave a hospital with a potentially fatal issue they didn't have prior to hospitalization. Bad patient experiences whittle way at a hospital's reputation. In a study last year by the National Research Corporation, hospitals with poor patient experiences were four times more likely to have poor reputations than good ones. Attitudes are changing We used to talk about patient satisfaction, and now we talk about patient experience. We have a new word because it's about so much more than patient satisfaction. It's also about creating connections with patients, and about how they navigate whole the system. is involves making a change in attitude. Not so long ago, the healthcare industry emphasized — indeed, it oen celebrated — dispassionate indifference. Being dispassionate — even at the risk of not seeming to care for the patient — was considered part of being scientific. You weren't supposed to get too concerned about being friendly, much less creating a personal connection patient or worrying about patients' feelings. When a few brave pioneers announced they would pay more attention to the patient experience, many people scoffed and sneered. A few rude or incommunicative nurses or even a few dirty rooms weren't worth all the fuss, because patients came to hospitals to get healthy, not to be a five-star hotel. But the patient engagement movement survived all this sneering and continued to gain steam. Aer all, focusing on patient experience revolution made sense. e word "healthcare" contains the word "care" — as in actually caring for patients. It really wasn't much of a surprise to find out — as countless studies have shown — that clinical quality and service quality are inextricably intertwined. For example, a dirty room oen points to a higher rate of infection. On a more profound level, studies showed that when patients feel mistreated by staff, it actually affects their ability to heal. e experts made an astonishing discovery that kindness actually improves outcomes. Patients have less pain and anxiety, and the healing process goes faster. Another research finding: When patients don't have warm feelings for their caregivers, they're less likely to share important clinical information with them. So much for patient satisfaction being inconsequential! The patient is your boss Day aer day, customers are treated with indifference and rudeness, because they're thought of as outsiders with inconvenient requests. But customers are not outsiders — they're the lifeblood of our business. A few years ago, I was talking with a friend of mine, Terry Mulligan, the vice-chairman of MedAssets, the supply chain and revenue cycle management firm. He said he asked his salespeople who it was they reported to. ey'd say to their supervisor, of course! No, Mulligan told them, you report to the patient. at story made me think — what if we actually began viewing the patient as our boss? is is a transformative notion that I believe few people in any industry have truly grasped — focus on the end-users and learn what they want. When you take the customer's point go view, you'll notice all kinds of improvements! Many people in healthcare are uncomfortable with the term "customer," but it's absolutely the right word. e customer deserves everyone's undivided attention and respect. Customers are not dependent on us — we're dependent on them. Patients are the lifeblood of healthcare. ey shouldn't be viewed as interruptions in our day. ey are the purpose of it. ey bring us their needs and wants, and we are there to fulfill them. When I hear people telling callers, "at isn't my department, try calling this number and someone should be able to help you," I get a little peeved. e person answering the phone should own that call and make sure the needs of the customer are met with a sense of urgency. e caller should be treated with dignity. Changing the organization Focusing on the patient experience means retooling the organization. Many hospitals have created a new position: the patient experience officer, or CXO. ere were 100 CXOs at last count — at institutions as diverse as the Cleveland Clinic, UC San Diego Health System and Johns Hopkins Medicine. According to James Merlino, the former CXO of the Cleveland Clinic, a key outcome of the work is improving communication on all levels. "When physicians communicate better with nurses," he says, "coordination of care is improved. en physicians communicate with patients and families more effectively, and compliance with treatments improves." You don't necessarily need to hire an CXO to improve the patient experience. But you do need make sure your staff understands and embraces its new mission. All too oen, connecting with patients isn't part of their training. Without proper training, staff interactions with patients can seem scripted and even robotic. Rather, these interactions need to become — as one healthcare executive put it — "individual service encounters and opportunities to touch lives with kindness." Every single person in the organization should be on board with the customer concept, and leadership must show the way. When you treat your employees with dignity and respect, they in turn will treat patients that way. In a hospital, every employee should be involved with patients — even housekeepers, the IT department and human resources. is means they ought to be able to spend a few minutes taking with patients or walking them to a destination that they may have