Printable Healthcare Newsletter Articles
Baird's popular monthly customer-service e-newsletter, The Patient Experience Post, provides timely feature articles, reading reviews, and tips for making your service efforts stronger than ever. Read below to see our most recent feature articles or feel free to print them for your own reference, but please include the required credit line!
Does your culture promote employee engagement? Peter Drucker said, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast," or, in other words, you can have the most comprehensive strategic plan in business history, but it won't gain an ounce of traction without a culture that is aligned well enough to execute that strategy. And alignment comes down to people.
Paul Spiegelman knows what it takes to build a culture that will drive and support strategy day in and day out. In his latest book, Smile Guide: Employee Perspective on Culture, Loyalty, and Profit, Spiegelman tells the story of the BerylHealth’s success, not through his own eyes, but through the eyes of the employees. Beryl is the national leader in healthcare call centers, an industry that is notorious for low morale and high turnover. Beryl has become the leader by nurturing its people and creating a culture where people are engaged, empowered, and loyal. The result is a better-quality product, financial performance, and growth.
What I love about this book is the way the reader is drawn into the Beryl culture through the many and varied perspectives of employees, ranging from senior executives to customer service agents. Each chapter addresses one facet of culture, which is brought to life through stories and examples and ends with action steps that the reader can implement at his or her own organization.
Another thing I applaud Spiegelman for is not shying away from the tougher issues associated with organizational culture. It’s one thing to inspire your employees with a fun, engaging environment, but what do you do about the few who want to push boundaries or take advantage of corporate and peer generosity? This book hits on those topics as well. By addressing the tough stuff, and sharing how they dealt with these challenges, the book reminds us that we can’t let ourselves be stifled by the few bad apples. Doing the right thing for and with employees will pay off.
This book is a sort of sequel to Spiegelman’s 2007 book, Why is Everyone Smiling? The Secret Behind Passion, Productivity, and Profit, but stands firmly on its own. I think it’s a must-read for anyone who wants to improve organizational culture. The stories are inspiring and the action steps are practical.
Effective communication is absolutely critical to a positive, loyalty-building patient experience. And when the patient experience is great, your HCAHPS scores are likely to follow. But remember, the patient experience is really about more than getting great scores—it’s about delivering great care that will earn you the top scores. We use the acronym GREAT to help coach and counsel healthcare organizations on how to boost not only scores but organize optimal encounters with patients and family members.
Learning and applying GREAT communication skills helps not only in clinical encounters but in a variety of non-clinical encounters as well. It’s about communication between anybody and patients. Anybody who comes into contact with a patient can follow this simple formula to increase chances of creating an excellent encounter:
· G is for greet. An appropriate greeting is one that includes the patient’s name whenever possible. It’s delivered with direct eye contact, a friendly smile, and a personal introduction. Be positive and engaging to ensure that you create a positive first impression. Example: “Good morning, Ms. Baird. My name is Kris and I will be your nurse today.”
· R is for relate or recap. You relate by finding ways to make personal connections with patients, recapping something that you know about them or their care. For instance: “I understand from Sheila, the night nurse, that you’ve been having trouble sleeping.” This recap not only helps you connect with the patient but also conveys a clear signal that you are part of an entire team dedicated to ensuring a positive care experience for the patient. You are demonstrating that her care has been a point of discussion between you and the night nurse.
· E is for explain. While the delivery of healthcare may be very familiar to you, it is often foreign territory to your patients. It is helpful to be very explicit about what you are doing, what will happen next, and what patients can expect from their experiences with you. This step helps to manage expectations and quell fears. It’s also a great time to refresh the whiteboard in the room as you post the day’s activities and explain the whiteboard’s use as a communication tool. Explain your role and what you are there to do.
· A is for ask. Ask open-ended questions to gain an understanding of the patient’s understanding, needs, and concerns. Avoid questions like: “Do you have any questions for me?” It’s too easy for the patient to respond “No,” and all too often that is exactly what they’ll do. Instead, ask, “What questions can I answer for you right now?” By asking this way, the patient is more likely to open up.
· T is for tell and thank. Tell patients what they can expect next and how they can reach you if needed. Thank patients.
Here is a scenario to show how this technique is used for a non-clinical encounter. In this case, a maintenance worker has been contacted to fix the thermostat:
· G—“Good afternoon, Mr. Jenson. My name is Ty and I’m from the maintenance department.”
· R—“I see from this request that you’re having some trouble controlling the temperature in your room. I’m sorry about that.”
· E—“I’m here to fix the problem (explanation). It should only take me about five minutes (manage expectations).”
· A—“Is this a good time for me to work on the thermostat?” (After completing the task) “It looks like it’s working now. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
· T—“Your room temperature should be back to normal shortly. If you need any further assistance with it, please call me at this number and I’ll return to make the adjustment. Thank you.”
I have written about this process in my book, Raising the Bar on Service Excellence, where I give additional examples. I have also found it to be very helpful as an additional tool in service recovery situations.
The GREAT communication process can be used in any setting from the simple office visit to an emergency room encounter. It provides a way to effectively connect with the patient in a way that positively impacts perceptions of the overall care experience—and that’s a great thing for you, your patient, and your healthcare organization.
And, speaking of emergency room visits, we hope you’ll plan to attend our upcoming webinar, “Improving Patient Satisfaction in the Emergency Department” in February. It will provide you with specific tips and recommendations to boost your delivery of emergency care, even in the most difficult situations.
Healthcare professionals are, by and large, a very committed, patient-oriented bunch. This is especially true of healthcare leaders who have been committed to providing exceptional service and clinical care to patients since long before they were faced with HCAHPS! But, HCAHPS has driven us all to be more clearly focused on measurable outcomes and results—and to have the opportunity to compare our performance to others as the service delivery bar continually rises.
One of the very interesting things I’m finding as the Baird Group works with healthcare organizations—very good, very service-oriented healthcare organizations—around the country, is how stymied many leaders are as they attempt to figure out why their HCAHPS scores are lower than they would have anticipated. These are good—often great—organizations, with committed and caring leaders; yet, they often are at a loss to figure out what exactly is going on when they take a look at their scores.
We’re generating some great insight through our care partner observer (CPO) mystery shopping methodology. CPOs accompany patients posing as a family member or friend as they are being admitted and throughout a large portion of their planned admission. Because a large percent of inpatient admissions originate in the ER, CPOs also join up with patients as they come into the ER, so they’re able to document the transitions of care between the ER and the inpatient unit. The CPO makes note of where things are great as well as where things could be improved.
CPOs are trained to carefully document the factual experiences that occur along the patient experience pathway as well has how to interview patients and family members throughout the entire visit. The CPO documents the facts that they observe, then delves deeper by asking the patient and family what they thought and felt about each encounter, often in very minute detail. As a result, we’re gaining insight into the patient experience and resulting HCAHPS scores, not only through our own direct observations, but, most importantly, through the in-depth interviews. It is through this dual assessment that we glean invaluable patient and family member perspectives.
These in-depth observations and interviews are really allowing us to fill in some of the blanks that exist as healthcare leaders review their HCAHPS scores and think, for example, “Why in the world are we being rated so low on cleanliness?” We were able to answer this question. And what we find is that, as with anything, you are only as strong as your weakest link.
Take for example a hospital that scores poorly on cleanliness. When the scores arrive, all eyes are on environmental services. And that may be true in some cases, but, in one example, here is what we discovered:
Our CPO documented that the environmental services staff was doing a thorough job of cleaning an area, but other staff members were creating clutter, which led the patient to feel that the room was not clean. So, for instance, a nurse started an IV and a tech did an EKG and both left wrappers behind on the bedside table. Every time food was delivered and placed on the bedside table, none of the old, half-full, warm beverages were removed. In another situation, a nurse helped the patient change his gown and then dropped the soiled gown on the floor where it remained for two shifts. When the patient was asked what he thought about the environment, he said it was dirty because of the clutter and mess left by staff.
These myriad activities, however minor in isolation, make a cumulative impression on patients and impact their perceptions—and your HCAHPS scores.
The solution? Recognizing that you are only as strong as your weakest link and taking steps to ensure that your staff are working together as a team to make sure that they are incredibly astute observers, that they’re looking at the environment through the eyes of their patients, and that they are taking steps on an ongoing basis to continually make improvements.
A single, seemingly minor, chink in the armor of your service delivery can make all the difference. We’re ferreting out those chinks through our CPOs and learning some exciting things in the process.
If you want to dig deeper into your patient service experiences, give us a call. Our care partner observers can work with you to unearth the little things that may be making a big difference to your patients, and your HCAHPS scores.
We all want to believe that we deliver patient and family centered care. In fact, many organizations have formed task forces and even positions that are charged with ensuring this individualized approach to care. But are we really delivering it consistently? And how are we responding to our most savvy consumers? Here’s your litmus test: read Ellen Menard’s book, The Not So Patient Advocate (Bardolf & Company, 2009). Menard’s book is actually written for the general consumer, but has a wealth of learning opportunities for healthcare professionals, especially patient experience champions.
In her book, Menard (a registered nurse and former healthcare executive) challenges consumers to be active decision-makers in their own care. She doesn’t just pose the challenge—she gives them the tools to do it. In each chapter, she adds three sections: Power Up, Work Up, and Check Up, where she walks the consumer through the steps in collecting pertinent information and then analyzes it in the context of the medical encounters.
Like I said, this book was written for the general consumer, but has merit for healthcare professionals. I would challenge anyone working in healthcare to read this book and ask, “If every patient who enters our ER, inpatient area, or clinic was a ‘Not So Patient Advocate’ (Menard’s term for an uber-savvy healthcare consumer), would we be ready for them? Would we have the tools to engage in thoughtful, respectful conversations, or would we become defensive and irritated?”
I for one, feel we may be years away from being ready, but Menard has provided us with a look at what future consumers will look like. Let’s get ready.
This month of Thanksgiving is a time when many of us reflect on our many blessings. One thing that often isn't top-of-mind on our list of things to be thankful for, though, is our employees. And that's unfortunate. In fact, we should be giving thanks to our employees all year round, not just during Thanksgiving, and, certainly, not just during their annual review.
The irony of it is that, as employees ourselves, we know how good it feels to receive a heartfelt and sincere “thank you” from our superiors (or even from our colleagues, employees, or patients). Yet we often fail to take the time to provide the same heartfelt thanks to our own staff. That’s a missed opportunity.
Letting employees know how much you appreciate their efforts and how those efforts help to contribute to the success of your organization isn’t just “nice to do”—it can make a measurable difference in their levels of loyalty. And, ultimately, it can make a difference in the level of satisfaction of your patients as well.
Shockingly, far too few employees receive the recognition they need. In fact, according to Gallup research, fewer than one in three American workers strongly agree that they have received
any praise from a supervisor during the past seven days, as measured by Gallup’s
Q12, a twelve-item survey designed to measure employee engagement. Their research further suggests that variation in response to the Q12 item “In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work” is responsible for a 10 – 20 percent difference in revenue and productivity. And employees who report that they’re not adequately recognized at work are three times more likely to say they'll quit in the next year (source).
There is a tendency, especially among the baby-boomer generation, to take the attitude, “no news is good news.” In other words: “If I don’t tell you you’re doing a bad job, assume you’re doing a good job.” Contrast this with an identified need among the millennial generation—whose parents and teachers have showered them with praise and encouragement virtually every day since they were born—to receive frequent recognition. Without that recognition they, and many of their colleagues from other generations as well, feel diminished and unappreciated.
What can you do about it? A number of things. Here are five:
1. Pay attention. The simple act of paying attention to your employees sends a strong message that you care about them. Simply rounding on a regular basis can make a big difference—walking around and observing employees in action and complimenting them on the things you see them doing right.
2. Show appreciation verbally, and do this publicly as well as privately. When we’re praised privately we get an ego boost. When we’re praised publicly, most of us get an even greater boost.
3. Write it down. Often when I speak in front of groups, I’ll ask the people in the room who have ever received a handwritten or even personally typed note from a boss at some point in their careers to raise their hands. I’ll then ask them to keep their hands up if they’ve saved those notes. When I look around the room, I generally see almost every hand still in the air. I know I have a file folder of special cards and notes I’ve received from people over the years, and I know how much I value those notes. Your employees do too. Taking two minutes to write a note is a gift they hold for years.
4. Be specific. While a simple “thank you” is better than nothing at all, adding something specific to that thank you can be particularly meaningful and motivating to your employees. Consider: “Thank you for leading the noise-control team. You are helping us lead a mission-centered organization,” or “Thank you for your teamwork today during our code. Your skills and attitude are a shining example of what we stand for. You make me proud.”
5. Make it personal. Effective recognition should be prompt, personal, and specific. It should happen as close as possible to the incident you observed and should be specific, as we’ve already discussed. In addition, it should be personal. A broad “Thanks to the organization for their efforts” is far less impactful on an individual level than “Thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to help me with the new employee orientation. Your passion for patient care shines through, and is a great example for our new team members. ”
The Baird Group’s model was developed to help organizations drive a service-centered culture change by focusing on five essentials. One of the essentials we stress is recognition. Never underestimate the power of a simple “thank you.” But even more powerful is the thank you that ties the action to purpose, mission, vision, and values. Many of us make New Year’s resolutions, but how about a Thanksgiving resolution? Make a resolution this month that you will take the time to let your staff know how thankful you are for them—not just this month, not just at their annual performance review, but throughout the year. Recognition is truly the gift that keeps on giving.
Thanks for being a loyal reader of our newsletter feature. And remember to watch for this month’s Tactical Tune Up, which builds on the tips you’ve learned here.
Happy Thanksgiving from the Baird Group!
