Patient Experience is Everyone’s Job
It’s been 12 years since the first chief patient experience officer (CXO) was hired. That was 2007 when Cleveland Clinic took the bold step to create the new position on the hospital’s executive team, along with forming a new department – the Office of Patient Experience.
Since then, CXOs have joined the executive ranks of many hospitals and healthcare organizations across the country. Their role today has significantly expanded to cover patient experience as well as quality, safety and performance improvement. However, some in the healthcare industry opted against the CXO model, instead, placing the accountability for a positive patient experience on the shoulders of many. For instance, at Mayo Clinic, its Mayo Clinic Experience Office includes directors from its seven system regions. Their job is to lead region staff in improving the patient experience in their respective territories.
CREATING THE EXPERIENCE ECOSYSTEM
There is no right or wrong approach to improving the patient experience. Whether you adopt the Cleveland Clinic model, the Mayo Clinic model, or some other variation, the reality is that patient experience is the responsibility of every member of the care team. Every interaction and every service provided is an opportunity to impact the experience.
The Beryl Institute calls it the Experience Ecosystem. Within the ecosystem, the entire care team plays an important role in effecting the kind of experience a patient will have, positive or negative. In it, as patient experience blogger Susan Mazer, Ph.D., says, “The clinical factors and non-clinical factors unify within the patient experience: housekeeping, dietary, admitting, security, volunteers, aides, assistants, the lab, facilities management, nurses, physicians, lab techs, and others all unite around patient centered care.”
EMBEDDING PATIENT EXPERIENCE ACROSS PLATFORMS
To maximize efficiency and effectiveness, those disparate individuals and departments must integrate healthcare systems and workflows built into their daily processes. Through integrations with all hospital platforms – from EMRs to ADT and more – Sentrics E3 interactive patient engagement provides that solution.
For example, through the E3 integration with dietary systems, the patient can order meals directly from their TV and Sentrics system. That feature alone saved one hospital 8,700 hours in staff time – and a 14% improvement in patient satisfaction scores.
If the patient is unhappy with the quality or timeliness of a meal, they can send that feedback through E3 directly to the dietary manager. The dietary manager can then immediately respond for service recovery.
In the same way, patients can adjust their room temperature with a few clicks on the E3 system. That smart room integration with the HVAC system platforms helps the facilities team deliver a better patient experience. The clinical staff can focus on quality care while the patient can directly access and make room temperature adjustments, request a meal or a pet therapy visit, or handle any number of other patient-controlled and initiated services.
EMR integrations enable the nurse to assign health education videos specific to the patient’s needs, enhancing engagement and health literacy. In addition, through the EMR integration, Sentrics’ digital whiteboard keeps the patient up-to-date on their care plan, care team and labs. All while documenting the patient’s pain level and other useful information.
Taken together, each automated workflow and integration is a step toward a better functioning Experience Ecosystem. Ultimately, this means a better patient experience and better outcomes. The proof is in the outcomes: Sentrics hospitals’ HCAHPS survey scores are improving at significantly higher rates than other hospitals in virtually every top-line category.
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