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In 2014, The Beryl Institute introduced ‘Patient Experience Week’ as a time to recognize healthcare staff that have an impact on patient’s experiences each day.   As the industry has moved from volume based to value-based care, consumerism has made patient experience even more critical to organizations.  Proving to be an important factor for improving patient safety and clinical outcomes while at the same time eliciting the highest reimbursements possible, Patient Experience is top of mind for most healthcare organization leaders.

In today’s healthcare industry, hospital CEOs face numerous challenges that can disrupt the balance between providing patients with exceptional quality of care and maintaining financial solvency for the organization.  In a recent survey by the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), they presented the top challenges cited by community hospital CEOs.  For the tenth consecutive year, financial concerns was number one on the list.  While hospital operating expenses increase, reimbursements and volume of patients continue to decrease.  Managing and overcoming financial concerns while providing communities with the services they want and quality they need proves to be the most challenging for CEOs.

Has your team struggled with improving the patient experience at your hospital?  Are you overwhelmed by the possible strategies to employ in order to improve your quality and HCAHPS scores?  Many organizations labor over which strategies or data is the most important to analyze.  Don’t get caught up in analysis paralysis!  With so many options available, here are 3 things that you can do to continue improving your patient experience.

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

Let’s pretend we’re having a conversation, and you can see that I’m not giving you my full attention.  Maybe I’m looking across the room, or I’m distracted by my cell phone or watch.  I look up and say, “Go ahead and talk. I can listen while I do this.”

In the words of Florence Nightingale, “It may seem a strange principle to enunciate as the very first requirement in a Hospital that it should do the sick no harm”.¹ This seems like a no-brainer, right?  Do No Harm.  Expected or not, most of us being admitted to a hospital have a reasonable assumption that we will not be harmed during our stay.  For many, that’s exactly what happens, in and out with no surprises.  Sadly, that is not the case for everyone.

Three Patient Experience Leaders walk into a restaurant.  The waitress asks, “What are you having today?” They all responded in the same way, “I’d like the Patient-Centered Culture, Service Excellence, and Real-time Technology.” The waitress looked perplexed.

If only these items were made to order like a great meal at your favorite restaurant.  Creating a positive patient experience would be easier for large healthcare systems where value-based models are driving structure, profit models and clinical standards.

hRounding has proven to be an effective practice in determining the level of patient satisfaction and improving the overall patient experience.  Many organizations will purchase a rounding solution to support and analyze rounding activities. Did your organization make the investment, but you haven’t seen an increase in HCAHPS scores?  Were you able to sustain the scores from previous years?  If you answered no to those questions, does that mean you bought the wrong solution?

HCAHPS – who knew that six letters could have such an impact on an organization? Low HCAHPS scores can result in a  loss of revenue, an unfavorable reputation in the community, public reporting of unsatisfactory scores, and potential downsizing of programs and/or employees.  Are your patient satisfaction scores lower than you expected?  It’s time to take a look at the consistency of your nurse leader rounding.

Has the following situation ever happened at your hospital?  A patient, named Bob, comes in for heart surgery over 20 years ago.  Since then, he comes in as needed for “tune ups”.  Over the years, Bob has become very familiar with his care team.  It’s now that time for Bob to come in for his latest procedure.  When Bob arrives, his care team discovers that due to an error in ordering that they didn’t have the right supplies in the room for him.  The care team could not provide Bob with the care he needed, in that place, at that time.

Improving Patient Experience remains top of mind for most healthcare executives, but strategies and best practices are still being discovered and vary between organizations.  Two evidence based strategies often used to increase low patient experience scores are Hourly Rounding and Bedside Shift Reports.

Tis the season for cooler temps, pumpkin spice, time spent with friends and family….and the flu.  It’s the dreaded three letter word that we all want to avoid this season. According to the CDC, over 80,000 Americans died of influenza and its complications during the 2017-18 season.¹  This surpassed a previous recorded all-time high dating back more than three decades at 56,000 deaths.²

Nearly 21,000 U.S. healthcare organizations and programs are accredited and certified by The Joint Commission, making it a recognized symbol of quality nationwide.  It’s their vision that providers deliver safe, quality healthcare at the best value for all.  They determine this through regular, unannounced accreditation surveys¹. Think the comprehensiveness of a final exam with a pop quiz schedule.  How do you cram for that?  You don’t.  You plan!

There are many issues defining the landscape of healthcare for 2018. According to the PwC Health Research Institute, strategic patient experience and tackling the opioid crisis are among the top 12.¹ Opioid use has been a hot topic of concern for decades. However, with the latest staggering statistics on opioid addiction and related deaths, finding a solution to the crisis has come front and center.

With the rise in value based models driving hospital reimbursements, a patient’s perception of care can have an impact to a hospital’s bottom line. There is concern that in tackling the opioid crisis there could be a negative impact on survey scores. So how do healthcare providers handle these two issues when they become competing priorities?

Waking up each morning after a restful night’s sleep, is a great way to start the day.  You’re energized and ready to tackle what comes your way.  However, if you are a nurse leader the stresses of the job may make getting a good night’s sleep a little harder.  We’ve asked nurse leaders what’s keeping them up at night and here’s what we’ve heard.

Despite the fact that OAS CAHPS are still voluntary, their eventual mandate could be right around the corner.  To achieve top scores, it’s not as straight forward as just focusing on clinical outcomes.  When patients are looking at where to have a procedure, they are looking beyond just competency.

The roots of patient rounding can be traced back to a medical center in Birmingham, AL in the late 1980s². After many years of this concept in practice, studies have shown that it has a direct correlation to improving patient experience. With patient experience scores having an impact on hospital revenue, conducting daily patient rounding is becoming a priority. However, simply completing the round isn’t enough.

Post-discharge calls aid in safe patient transitions, help prevent readmissions, and improve patient satisfaction.¹  In addition, academic studies show that there is a positive correlation between post-discharge calls and HCAHPS scores.² Furthermore, a study from the Beryl Institute shows that advanced analytics can provide robust information allowing hospital systems to take actionable steps for operational improvements, resulting in improved patient outcomes.³ Based on these findings, we know that post-discharge follow-ups are a key part of not just the patient experience model, but the entire continuum of care.

Hospital systems, post-acute care providers and physicians are all participants in today’s world of value based healthcare. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has established specific models to encourage all participants to work together to improve quality and coordination of care from the pre-surgery process through recovery¹. In order to receive maximum bundled payment reimbursements, they must meet recognized patient outcomes.

In the last several years, our bedside heroes have taken on a much more demanding role.  Long gone are the days of just delivering quality care and attending to our every need.  Now they must handle a much larger administrative part of our care too.

Did you know that 20% of the Medicare patients discharged from hospitals are readmitted within 30 days?  Even more surprising, that rate increases to 25% when patients are discharged to skilled nursing homes.¹  This is a costly statistic to both the taxpayers and hospitals.  So how do you make sure that you are referring your patients to long-term care facilities with top notch care?  Check out their survey results and make sure they are up to date on the latest changes. Help them help you!

One size does not fit all.  Ensuring a positive experience for children and their parents/guardians is essential for strategically building patient trust.  Today, building that trust is also financially imperative. How do parents and guardians view their child’s care?

The widespread impact of the 2017-2018 flu season was a harsh reminder for many on the importance of infection prevention.  According to the CDC there were an estimated 810,000 influenza-associated hospitalizations ¹.  The spread of the flu, like many other infections, is preventable with the proper infection controls in place.

It’s 2018 and technology is everywhere…or is it? Across the country there are hospitals and healthcare organizations that continue to choose to conduct patient rounding armed with paper and pencil.  Is your hospital one of them?

Your organization is in the midst of a digital transformation and new technology is on the horizon. You have survived through the research, vendor evaluations, requirements gathering, and development. Now it’s time to embark on the implementation phase of your organization’s journey to improve operational efficiency.

Is your team afraid to log not met domains and coaching notes? Do they often communicate that they don’t want to ‘tattle’? OR, are they completely silent during team meetings? It’s an uncomfortable discussion, but top box HCAHPS are dependent on seeing and understanding the full picture of your patient’s experience.