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There is a lot of focus on patient satisfaction and experience in healthcare, and for good reason.  Patient Experience is a key contributor to overall hospital quality measures and insurance reimbursements.  In addition, patient satisfaction and experience have been linked time and again to improved patient outcomes.  Although we sometimes view satisfaction and experience as the same thing, they are different.  Both satisfaction and experience are equally important and require ongoing communication passed between caregivers, as well as from caregivers to patient.  A famous physician from Canada, Sir William Osler, once said: “A good physician treats the disease and a great physician treats the patient who has the disease.”⁽¹⁾  The same applies to patient satisfaction and experience.  Focusing on creating a satisfied patient who has a positive experience is the key for driving hospital quality and patient loyalty. 

Healthcare organizations have recognized that to keep pace with industry growth, regulatory requirements, and increased responsibilities, caregivers require the aid of innovation.  In the past, physicians and nurses had paper charts and labor-intensive processes.  Manual processes took away precious time needed for patient care.  Fortunately, caregivers today have the opportunity to tap into the entire patient history while in the room with the patient.  This is a huge improvement from even five years ago.  Many industry thought leaders have been paving the way, replacing paper processes and antiquated technologies with robust, mobile solutions that enable caregivers to improve patient care on-the-spot.  Whether it be behind the scenes helping the operations, or front and center in the patient room, technology is changing the game. 

We all know, providing a safe environment for patients to recover is a fundamental part of offering quality patient care that fosters the best possible outcomes.  With healthcare demands as they are, it can be challenging for organizations to balance complying with regulatory requirements while creating the safest place for patients to heal. Lean staffing ratios combined with regulatory, operational and administrative burdens can lead to increased safety issues.

Despite ongoing government initiatives for policy and regulation, the healthcare industry continues to grow exponentially. Hospitals must be nimble, flexible, and run a tight ship to remain financially solvent. Growth and staffing shortages, combined with what has become a consumer-driven industry, means that healthcare executives are competing for staff, resources, and patients at the same time they are striving to provide quality patient care and work within a smaller budget. In this environment, healthcare organizations must look at their most significant concerns and areas with the most opportunity for improvement in the shortest amount of time. 

Salary.com conducted a recent survey, compiling a list of the top 10 most stressful jobs.  Nursing ranked #6.  Surprising to some, but not to those that have made it a career to care for others.  Nurses are the glue that holds everything together.  Doctors rely on them to carry out orders and provide updates on patient status.  Patients need them to provide the care necessary to make them healthy.  Nurses go the extra mile to accommodate both groups and never say “that’s not my job.”

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.

Rounding 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?

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.

The roots of patient rounding can be traced back to a medical center in Birmingham, AL in the late 1980s.² 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.

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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? 

The Healthcare industry has been advancing quickly into the digital age. Having a mobile strategy is just one part of it.  With the introduction of electronic medical record systems and the ongoing integration of technology into the continuum of care, there has been an explosion of software and hardware products and solutions.