Becker's Hospital Review

161 FINANCE CMO / CARE DELIVERY Kaufman Hall: Less Than 1 in 10 Healthcare Organizations Treat Consumer Expectation as 'High Priority' By Alyssa Rege R oughly 8 percent of healthcare organi- zations consider consumer expectation a high priority and have implemented several consumer-based strategies with some success, according to research from Kaufman, Hall & Associates. e report, titled the "2017 State of Consum- erism in Healthcare: Slow Progress in Fast Times," is based on more than 125 healthcare organizations' responses to Kaufman Hall's 2017 Healthcare Consumerism Survey. e majority of survey respondents (74 percent) were from health systems across the U.S., while 21 percent of those surveyed identified as leaders at various U.S. hospitals. Here are five insights from the report. 1. Roughly 90 percent of survey respondents cited improving key elements of the consum- er experience as a high priority for their orga- nizations. However, only 30 percent said they instituted tools or practices in those areas. 2. More than half (58 percent) of healthcare leaders said offering digital tools and infor- mation to enable consumer engagement represented high priorities for their organi- zations. But of those leaders, 14 percent said they have those capabilities in place. 3. While respondents identified access to care as one of their organization's top priorities, only 19 percent of those surveyed said their organizations offered significant access via re- tail clinics. Nearly half of those surveyed (47 percent) said their organization did not own or operate retail clinics. 4. More than two-thirds (69 percent) of re- spondents said their organization imple- mented an online patient portal. Roughly 43 percent of those surveyed said they imple- mented tools to allow patients and providers to communicate through online messaging services. 5. Almost all (97 percent) of respondents said their organization uses post-visit patient surveys to gain customer insight, followed by quantitative research (85 percent), analysis of internal patient data (72 percent), real-time feedback during visits (34 percent) and ad- vanced analytics (23 percent). n Patient Oversight Can Boost Hand Hygiene Compliance: 4 Study Findings By Mackenzie Bean S upplying patients with handheld signs to remind physicians to wash their hands can help improve hand hygiene compliance among providers, ac- cording to a study published in the American Journal of Infection Control. Researchers from the West Virginia University School of Medicine introduced the signs — known as patient em- powerment tools — at Morgantown, W.Va.-based J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital in December 2015 as part of a multi- pronged approach to improve hand hygiene adherence. The hospital's hand hygiene compliance rates jumped from 48 percent in 2015 to about 75 percent in 2016 fol- lowing the interventions. Researchers conducted two separate surveys with patients and provider to assess acceptance of the handheld signs. Researchers polled 222 adult patients or parents of pedi- atric patients from December 2015 to June 2016. They also distributed a separate survey to 89 healthcare providers in November 2015, prior to the launch of the tool. Here are four study findings. 1. Sixty-four percent of adult patients and 70 percent of par- ents said the tool made them feel more control of their care. 2. Parents were almost 20 percent more likely to speak up about hand hygiene than adult patients. Seven- ty-seven percent of parents felt comfortable reminding physicians to wash their hands, compared to 64.8 per- cent of adult patients. 3. Just over half of providers (54.9 percent) felt patients should play a role in reminding physicians to wash their hands. Most providers preferred patients make verbal requests regarding hand washing, versus using the signs to remind them. 4. Of the providers who said patients should not be in- volved in hand hygiene efforts, 37 percent said it was not a patient's responsibility, 16 percent felt it would embarrass the clinician and 13 percent felt it would negatively affect the patient-physician relationship. "Based on the results of this study, patient empowerment appears to be an effective strategy to facilitate healthcare workers' adherence to hand hygiene, but acceptance of the [patient engagement tool] by providers remains a challenge," said lead author Allison Lastinger, MD, a fellow at WVU School of Medicine. "Barriers to hand hygiene ad- herence among healthcare providers should be identified and addressed." n

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