Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

13 PATIENT EXPERIENCE Through the Eyes of the Patient: Looking Beyond HCAHPS to Improve Patient Experience By Heather Punke D espite the fact that consumerization is on the rise in healthcare and patients are becoming more selective when it comes to choosing a healthcare provider, a large chunk of hospital executives haven't reevaluated their organization's approach to the patient experi- ence, according to Debbie Landers. Ms. Landers, senior vice president of health- care strategic communications and engage- ment firm Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock, conducted interviews and administered an online survey among patient experience executives from across the country as part of a massive patient experience research project. She says results of the survey show roughly 50 percent of hospital CXOs and other patient experience professionals still think of patient experience solely in terms of HCHAPS scores. "If you're using that as your only metric, you only have an inpatient focus for what patient experience is," she says — which can be dam- aging to hospitals. "Patient experience is not just an acute care need," Ms. Landers says. "To really own the brand in your marketplace for patient experience and reputation, you really have to start that long before someone ends up being a patient in your hospital." at means opening up the definition of patient experience to include interacting with and engaging community members before they even step foot inside a facility. Such interactions enable hospital leaders and clini- cians to "look at healthcare through the eyes of a patient," she says. When that happens, providers can see how a patient's experience with the healthcare system is so much broad- er than whether or not a room was quiet at night or if the food arrived hot. Instead, consumers today are looking for convenience, affordability, high-quality care and excellent customer service from their healthcare providers, Ms. Landers says. Measuring up Part of the reason executives are still thinking in this "old school" way about patient experience is because they are already required to report HCAHPS scores, results are available to the public and they are tied to Medicare reimburse- ment in CMS' value-based purchasing program. "It's measurable," Ms. Landers says of the in- patient experience. "[HCAHPS is] one of the few metrics they have industrywide they can use to compare" themselves to other hospitals. On the other hand, it's much more difficult to measure and analyze patients' experiences with other areas of the system, but it is possible. Ms. Landers says there are a few ways to measure patient experience beyond the acute care space. For instance, many hospitals are using CGCAHPS surveys, taken by patients visiting physician offices, to measure outpatient expe- rience as well. Several consulting companies also offer supplemental patient surveys to measure experience beyond questions asked by CAHPS to get a more fleshed-out view of what patients experience in the system. Further, many health systems are inviting patients back to participate in patient/family advisory councils where they can share their experiences first hand. Beyond that, hospitals are increasingly realizing "happy employees and physicians equal happy patients," Ms. Landers says, which makes employee and physician engagement data im- portant in evaluating patient experience. What sets hospitals apart For leaders looking to move forward with a more progressive, big-picture approach to patient experience, Ms. Landers suggests focusing on two things first: • Online presence. "Online presence has a lot to do with capturing consumers' atten- tion before they're patients," she explains. Hospitals can consider making their web- sites more robust, engaging in the commu- nity and writing more about wellness and preventative medicine online for starters. • Access. Ms. Landers used the example of Cleveland Clinic's same-day appointment initiative as an example of consumer-focused access improvement. "e more opportunity you have to get the patient in to you when the patient needs to get to you, the more positive they're going to be about your system," she says. e bottom line: Healthcare patient experience leaders need to start embracing the consumer view of patient experience — meaning they must bust out of an HCAHPS-only view — if they want to survive in the industry, Ms. Landers says. "Leaders who want to be around five years from now need to be embracing patient expe- rience from the full spectrum." n Beyond Surveys: 3 Strategies to Enhance Patient Experience Measurement By Brian Zimmerman T he metrics of patient experience are continuing to evolve as healthcare systems and the feder- al government work to accurately measure the experience, satisfaction and engagement of patients. The breadth of these metrics leaves room for supplementa- ry assessments that can be conducted at the individual patient level. According to Paul Rosen, MD, associate professor of pediatrics at Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadel- phia, patient insights at the individual level are essential to truly understanding what the patient encounters as they traverse the care system. Here are three strategies put forth by Dr. Rosen in NEJM Catalyst to better understand the patient experience.

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