Perspectives from the Patient Experience Symposium 2018

Energesse and our partner, Patient Opinion, were the major co-sponsors of the NSW Health symposium again this year. We don’t normally sponsor events but I’m never one to miss supporting our awesome clients, which are Western Sydney Local Health District and South Western Sydney Local Health District, very large health services within NSW Health. I also loved the symposium – a buzzing event full of 600 consumers, experts, clinicians and speakers passionate about the patient experience!

It was a great opportunity to share our learnings in a Workshop called How to Connect with Patients so They ‘Feel Heard’ and Engage staff in Improving Patient Experience. We also connected with a range of healthcare staff, current and future clients and even our competitors – all driven to change the world in our own ways.

If you missed the symposium this year, I’ve captured the hive of activity and some key learnings in my video below. If you were there, you might spot yourself in the background!

The Patient Experience Symposium or any other patient experience event for that matter, is a great way to re-energise and re-motivate yourself in what you’re trying to achieve in improving your service delivery and care experience.
Energesse is an expert at pointing you in the right direction – call or email us if you need any specific assistance with patient experience measurement, implementing quality improvement or if you just need help making a start!

A Patient Story to Inspire You Today…

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you’ve come back refreshed from the holidays and ready to start the year off with a bang! Here’s an inspirational story to help you – with your New Year resolutions, your own personal health or your understanding of the patients and consumers you encounter everyday.

I met Alana Henderson, a patient advocate, at a HISA talk late last year. A woman who had a stroke at the age of 59 (not to mention diabetes and cancer) who changed her life by project managing her health like an engineer. Find out more about how she transitioned out of her dire health circumstances (for less than AUD$300!) through her book ‘Out of the Fog’ (available on Amazon) OR watch the interview below now…

Alana’s key message to practitioners and providers is to ‘not be afraid of what patients do for themselves’. Support the involvement they have in their own care and you can be assured of delivering a meaningful patient experience.

Talk to us now if you are thinking of spearheading initiatives this year around just that! We’ve all the advice, support, training or technology you might need.

 

The most unexpected story on patient experience you will read today…

My Research Manager at Energesse, Kiran, flew to New Zealand a few days ago and she often gets nervous on flights. Something happened on the flight that shocked and inspired her…. here’s her turbulent tale…

At about 10.35am, the Malaysia Airlines plane hit a rough patch. A warbled cry pierced the air. 5 rows down from her, a 20 year old man called Calvin, was having a seizure!

For a moment, no one did anything. Passengers around him stared in alarm as he made strangled sounds, his arms jerking about. Then panic, as someone shouted ‘He’s choking! He’s choking!’. Someone else made a move to give him the Heimlich maneuver. One other recognized it as an epileptic fit.

47188500 - blurred interior of airplane.

Suffice to say, it was a complete state of confusion!

A steward came running in to help. He was visibly panicked and paged for a doctor.

There were none on board (I wasn’t there of course!). And poor Calvin was travelling alone.

An elderly lady jumped across three rows of seats toward Calvin. She looked determined. Taking off her jacket, she asked the people around her to help. She waited for Calvin’s movements to slow down and then got him down to the ground, lying him on his side and extending his neck. We collected tissues to wipe his mouth. The steward brought an oxygen tank and placed the mask over his mouth. Passengers helped push blankets under him and managed to lift him up onto the seats. The elderly lady kept reassuring Calvin.

‘’You just had a seizure….you’re ok…..tell me your name”.

His head was lolling about and she kept waking him up and calmly asking, “Do you have medicines, Calvin, where are they? Do you take the full pill or just half? Calvin, listen, stay up, stay up”.

She repeated this until she managed to find the medicines in his bag and administer the right dose.

She stayed with him until he was fully conscious. Others helped to take him to the restroom and bring him water.

The situation was under control. Until 6 hours later.

Calvin had another seizure. Things got interesting in a different way.

The elderly flying superwoman was there as soon as she heard Calvin’s now-familiar cry.  8 passengers and 2 stewards entered the scene. Instructions were minimal and actions were on auto-pilot.

Wait. Lie. Towels.

Wipe. Blankets. Brace.

1,2,3, Up!

Secure. Clean. Clean. Oxygen.

Reassure. Reassure. Reassure.

Calm. Thank you, everyone.

The ‘fluidity’ of the scene before Kiran was like music.

This impromptu, unstructured, unaligned, very diverse team of airline passengers came together with one goal: Help Calvin. They moved together calmly and quickly. They looked to the Flying Superwoman to lead. She led in a way that was positive, calm, consistent and inspiring. New passengers came to the scene; they had watched, understood and felt compelled to help. They found a fit almost immediately.

Once the scene had settled, the leader stayed around Calvin. She’d missed her dinner. She stayed until the pilot said we were landing.

No, this wasn’t a scene in a hospital where everyone knew their roles. It wasn’t an OT (operating theatre), it wasn’t a ward. Calvin’s patient experience took place in row 20 of a NINE HOUR FLIGHT.

I can’t help but be drawn to the Flying Superwoman in Kiran’s story.

It is very likely that, whatever her background, she had probably had excellent training, a long track record of medical EXPERIENCE, and probably some highly qualified mentors along the way. She had immediate buy-in and ENGAGEMENT from those around her through her demeanor and actions. She asked questions, she listened, she didn’t panic. She showed a high degree of EMOTIONal intelligence. The lesson that passed on from rescuer to team, from leader to followers, happened quickly.

120 people in that flight cabin went home that day with a skill, a piece of knowledge, a little less fear and a sense of participation in something that was beyond them.

How does one get to this point in EXECUTING your duties? When does leadership becomes so effortless, where inspiring is so easy, where a team of people rallies around you and finds their place so easily because they understand your purpose and they understand their purpose?

Fundamental to any form of leadership is the ability to take charge yet be approachable and accessible, managing your response and reaction to situations and delivering EXCELLENCE.

You can get these fundamentals right with Energesse as your Learning Partner. Be prepared to deal with the unexpected when it happens by learning about the ‘6 E Framework’ for improving the Patient Experience, anytime, anywhere.

Don’t wait another day to EVOLVE your own ‘superhuman’ abilities in really knowing what to do for your patients when they need you.

 

My phone line is open. The numbers are 02 809 0918. Let’s have a 15 minute conversation TODAY about your leadership and team challenges.

How will the Patient Experience evolve in Australia?

Australia is embarking on a major journey to put patients at the center of decision-making in the healthcare system. In order for us to understand how the patient experience landscape in Australia will change over the coming decade, we can observe the trends in the US as an example.

The pioneering hospitals in the US that invested in measuring and improving the Patient Experience did so because they believed was the ‘right thing to do’. This first phase was driven by the investment of ‘early adopters’. Their leadership had a belief that patients should be involved in various committees in the hospital’s administration to influence service delivery. 

The next big phase that brought greater change to the system was the public reporting of quality measures by the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services, the primary funder in the US. This reporting of Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey on hospital websites drove senior leaders to take a greater focus on metrics that were important to patients. 

Note that there is a difference between active reporting and passive reporting. As more active reporting occurs on various websites, and those findings communicated broadly, the greater the pressure on hospitals to be accountable to their results. 

Transparency breeds trust, and greater public reporting should bring greater trust and engagement with the patient community.

The subsequent phase took approximately four years from the initiation of public reporting in the US for funding to be specifically tied to Patient-Reported Outcome Measures and Patient Reported Experience Measures (Satisfaction Scores). These value-based payments will increase from 1% in 2015 of the hospital’s funding to higher percentages over the coming years.  It demonstrates a great commitment from the US health system to align its payment incentives to what patients really need and want from their healthcare.

I would expect similar trends to play out in Australia. Though, I expect we may be quicker in our adoption of patient-centred measures to drive change.

On another note, while in Dallas for the Beryl Institute Patient Experience Conference 2016, I connected with Jeff Kauffman a CEO from the aged-care (assisted living) sector  in the US, who had a couple of secrets on aligning staff incentives with the resident experience in such facilities. 

Enjoy this episode and let me know your feedback!

 

The day “patient-centred care” became a reality in Australia

Energesse, one of Australia’s leading healthcare IT consultancies, will be unveiling the first  patient feedback technology to measure patient emotions.  The MES Experience platform has transformed the NHS, and Energesse is bringing the technology to the exhibition after trialling it with one of Australia’s largest hospital districts for the past 18 months.

Dr Avnesh Ratnanesan from Energesse, together with the director of MES from London, Nick Goodman, will be showcasing the technology on stage in the Healthcare Innovation Zone at 3.40pm on 15th March.

The MES Experience technology is a multichannel platform for collecting patient experience and satisfaction data at point-of-care, and reports meaningful analytics for managers. This technology has the potential to truly enable patient-centred care in Australia by producing quantitative data on the emotional aspects of patient opinion in real-time. For the first time, health services will be able to monitor and adjust patient care according to the current situation.

If you are attending the conference, please do come and witness the debut of MES Experience software platform on stage in the Exhibition Centre. Free passes to the Expo can be obtained here, if you have not registered on any events yet.  Thanks and we look forward to seeing you on the 15th!

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