I was recently doing a full-day patient experience workshop with staff nurses from several organizations and was stunned to learn that very few had ever seen the HCAHPS survey questions. Once exposed to the eight dimensions of the survey, they unanimously agreed that nurses could impact scores in all eight dimensions and were eager to explore solutions in greater depth.
What surprises me most is that when reimbursement is on the line, I would expect healthcare leaders to do more to engage nurses in making improvements. Improving patient satisfaction takes more than just telling staff to be nice. They have to first understand the patient perspective and then become involved in finding what works. Read more...
For years, we’ve talked about the importance of hiring for fit. Many leaders believe they can teach technical skills but want to attract talent that is closely aligned with organizational values and with a strong sense of purpose. I’m a firm believer in this school of thought and am delighted to learn that the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) has embraced this thinking as well in its recent re-design of the MCAT exam.
According to an article in The New York Times on April 13, medical school candidates will not only need to demonstrate proficiency in the hard sciences and math but also in behavioral sciences and critical analysis. Read more...
I really love this time of year. The lull that we have around the holidays gives me the chance to reflect on the previous year and set my sights on the great opportunities that lie in the year ahead. Plus, there’s something so refreshing about having a whole year spread out before me with nothing but possibilities! January is a time for setting goals for myself and for my business. It gives me direction and helps me stay aligned with my mission and vision (I have a personal mission and vision as well as for my business.). Read more...
I had an interesting revelation recently that I wanted to share. In my consulting work, I am frequently asked to help clients understand the patient experience behind the HCAHPS scores. One area that many organizations struggle with is cleanliness. When the cleanliness score goes down, all eyes are on housekeeping, right? Conventional wisdom suggests that, if the scores are bad, it must mean an environmental service is doing a poor job. Well, before you start harping on the housekeeping crew, you might want to take a closer look around and make sure you understand how the patient defines cleanliness. Next, you’ll want to examine some habits that are giving you a bad rap. Read more...
Remember the scene from the movie A Few Good Men when Jack Nicholson’s character shouted from the witness stand, “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!”? I often feel like shouting that myself. There are so many times I face off with leaders who want us to come in, wave the magic wand, and fix their patient satisfaction scores rather than facing the truth about the underlying culture that is at the root of poor patient satisfaction. Read more...
What goes up must come down, right? This indisputable law has been regarded as a hard, fast fact for hundreds of years, but it doesn’t have to apply to your patient satisfaction scores. Just because your scores go up, doesn’t mean they have to fall again. And on the flip side, just because they go up, doesn’t mean they’ll stay up.
I was recently chatting with a client about what it takes to sustain positive change and I was shocked to realize how many leaders assume that positive changes aren’t sustainable. Read more...
“Grab a man by his wallet and his heart and mind are sure to follow.” I heard that quote years ago and it has always resonated with me, but never so much as in today’s healthcare environment. For years, service excellence was viewed as “fluff” by the C-suite. Today, service excellence, and the resulting patient satisfaction (HCAHPS) scores are not only transparent, but have some serious reimbursement at stake. It’s amazing how the shift in attention has occurred as a result of HCAHPS and value-based purchasing. Read more...
So much of the patient experience rests in the hands of nurses. But so does quality, safety, and a myriad of other metrics. Nurses have a lot on their plates, so it’s no wonder many of them want to run screaming when leaders start “preaching” about the patient experience and improving HCAHPS scores. Although there are countless moments of truth during any healthcare encounter, many of the most important ones happen at the hands of the nursing staff. Read more...
In the era of transparency, when HCAHPS scores are publicly reported, healthcare leaders have a vested interest in improving patient satisfaction. But I think there is some confusion out there about what the ultimate goal is. Is it to create a more positive patient experience or to just get better scores? At face value, you might think that the two are one and the same. Not so. I find that when the pressure is on to improve the scores, people start to strategize more about how to influence the patient rather than focusing on a better experience that will earn them the top scores. Somehow, people have managed to separate the patient’s experience from the scores. Read more...
I think most of us would agree that it’s a good idea to do discharge follow-up calls to patients, and yet it’s the rare healthcare organization that does it consistently (and well). I’ll admit that I am a bit of an idealist when it comes to discharge follow up, but if we are really going to deliver truly patient-centered care, we need to have some ideals. Read more...
