Clarifire Conversations

What is empathy? The dictionary defines it as "the psychological identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another."¹ Empathy plays a vital role in the caregiver-patient relationship.  Insight into a patient’s feelings impacts diagnosis, treatment, and overall patient satisfaction. We feel empathy when friends are going through a rough time, or our child isn't picked for a part in a play, but what does empathy mean for a patient?

Do your leaders often complain about technology overload?  Are the teams’ iPads gathering dust on the shelf?  Are hand-written rounds not in alignment with your HCAHPS results? If you answered ‘yes’ to even one of the above questions, you may need to re-evaluate your current rounding solution.

We’ve all read the headlines.  A hospital decides to make the move to a new technology and things don’t go as anticipated.  The project timeline was longer than originally projected.  The solution in production isn’t working as expected. 

Patient Experience Week is next week. Have you thought about the meaning and purpose behind it? Or better yet—how you’re going to celebrate?

Each clinical pathway has its own set of unique critical points in time that are the most impactful to positive patient care. Providing a streamlined and consistent care model enables healthcare systems to use a value equation that can easily identify these points.

As a Patient Experience Manager, CNO, or Nurse Executive, you understand the importance and effectiveness of Nurse Leader Rounding. Are you having trouble convincing your teams to get on board with the idea? Maybe they’re not buying into it because they think they won’t have time to learn something new. Maybe you’ve used a company in the past and got burned—but switching to a technology that actually works is easier than you think. Here are some things you can say to help convince your team to trust the process.

The Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea just ended. For the first time in nearly a decade, North Korea participated. If you’ve been watching, you know this is making history because technically, North and South Korea are still at war.

The number of fatalities from this year's flu season is also making the history books. The Washington Post reports “the number of people going to doctors’ offices and emergency rooms has surged to levels not reported since the peak of the 2009 swine flu pandemic. Hospitalizations are also at record levels.” Some hospitals even went as far as setting up tents outside in their parking lots due to overcrowding. Caregivers are true heroes and the gold medalists of the healthcare industry.

“Every day in the U.S., more than 650,000 opioid prescriptions are dispensed, and 3,900 people start using prescription opioids for a non-medical purpose. Seventy-eight people die from an opioid-related overdose daily.”¹ This creates a struggle for hospitals between patient satisfaction and realistic expectations of pain levels. 

The healthcare industry is increasing their focus on communication and collaboration across the entire care continuum.  The “transition of care” movement aims to share timely, accurate, and sufficient information across providers such as Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgery Centers, Rehabilitation Centers, Urgent Care Facilities, and more. 

In healthcare, getting lean has been proven to show impressive results and is done by making small, incremental improvements that continue to add value and eliminate wasteful processes within your organization. So how do you apply lean practices within your hospital? Like building a house, you need a solid foundation to build on.

One of the many areas of healthcare technology that has seen rapid growth is digital rounding solutions. Many organizations are making the transition away from traditional pen and paper rounding to electronic and often mobile data collection systems. Real time alerts, efficient data collection, positive patient perception of care, and simplified reporting are just a few of the benefits that make digital rounding attractive.

Professionals in the healthcare field know a better patient experience directly translates to increased patient satisfaction scores and positive impact to hospital reimbursements.

Over 40 years ago, physicians created the first ambulatory surgery center (ASC). These centers are a more convenient, less expensive alternative to a hospital. Physicians pioneered these new facilities with the goal to have more control of their surgical practices. 

Parents want what's best for their children. They often use reviews and evaluations as a way to determine the value of a product or service. This information is useful to understand and make decisions on what is best for their child. We look at safety ratings to determine the highly rated car seat to keep our babies safe as they travel in our cars. We review school ratings to determine the best place for them to get an education.

Do you know the average number of decisions a person makes a day?  35,000! That’s the number reported by various internet sources. It’s a bit overwhelming, but when you think about the number of decisions you made before you left for work this morning it’s definitely possible. It certainly makes it easier to understand why we are all so tired at the end of the day. Our brains are working overtime!

It’s no secret that digital technologies are shaping the future of the healthcare space. It’s happening now. But what does that mean? It means we should all embrace it and educate ourselves. 

You’ve done the research, vetted the vendors, and found the perfect workflow automation solution that will transform your existing business processes into a centralized automated structure of operational efficiency. Why haven’t you signed the contract and started implementation?

When a patient walks through the doors of your hospital, they already have a preconceived notion of the experience they will receive during their stay. The expectations of today’s consumer are much different than those from five years ago and it’s safe to assume they will be even more different five years from now. 

As CEOs, we are accountable for the success or failure of our organizations. It’s a challenge that we chose to take on and don’t take lightly. Our heads are continually filled with questions about our latest margins, new technologies or cyber threat risks we need to look at, if we're running our business efficiently, and are we meeting the expectations of our customers?  Unfortunately, those questions don’t stop when our heads hit the pillow.

Healthcare professionals understand how important it is that their patients have a good experience and are treated well during their stay, on top of the expectation of quality clinical care. Now more than ever, emphasis on the experience is critical as HCAHPS scores are directly linked to reimbursement initiatives through the Center of Medicaid and Medicare Services. 

Organizational nirvana: that feeling you get when you open the door to that one closet in your home. It’s okay—go ahead and laugh.  We all have one. The door opens and this time, instead of dodging falling items, you can see what’s there and actually find what you are looking for without fear of bodily harm. 

Hospital systems are focusing now more than ever on improving the experiences of patients and their families, as their “inpatient” providers are held accountable to value based service models.

It’s no secret that structured rounding improves patient communications and case management outcomes. But, according to a study conducted by Stanford Health Care, purposeful rounding has also increased patient satisfaction by an average of 12% in some hospitals.

HCAHPS isn’t a term that is new to the healthcare industry.  Hospitals have been collecting and reporting HCAHPS data for almost a decade now.  They have been able to analyze the data, implement quality improvement initiatives, and see the results with increased HCAHPS scores and Medicare reimbursements. 

Technology plays an integral part in the way healthcare organizations do business today. It allows hospitals to quickly address patient needs while adhering to value based service models.  There are many rounding products on the market that boast ease of use, scalability, and efficiency.  While all important, how does the product deliver on those promises?