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 step-by-step guide to improving patient experience for PX champions

Are you interested to hear from patient experience champions on best practice strategies to improve the levels of patient satisfaction?

Improving Patient Experience and Choice held in Sydney on 10 – 11 October 2016, is a premier two-day forum bringing together key stakeholders from Government, Health Districts, Hospitals and Health Care Providers.

My company Energesse is happy to be the Knowledge Partner at this event. In line with this, will be chairing Day 1 of the conference and will also be leading the workshop:

The 6 E Framework

A step-by-step guide to improving patient experience for PX champions

This workshop presents the 6 E Framework, a step by step guide on how to holistically improve patient experience, adaptable for any healthcare setting. This workshop will provide you with tools and techniques that you can use immediately.

improve px

With the UK’s NHS Head of Experience of Care, David McNally, and other C-Suite Executives, Directors and Leaders in Patient Experience speaking at this event. This two-day forum is a timely event for you to develop strategies and share expertise on improving patient experience and choice in Australia.

Here’s a sneak peek at other program highlights

International keynote:

  • David McNally, Head of Experience of Care, NHS England

Patient-centered culture and care

  • Carrie Marr, Chief Executive, Clinical Excellence Commission
  • Robin Whyte, Chief Executive Officer, Eastern Melbourne PHN
  • Rene Pennock, Chief Executive Officer, South Western Sydney PHN

The final early-bird ends this month, 30th September 2016 (Friday).   You may also avail of group discounts, call 02 9368 3915.

Hope you will join me, David McNally, Jean-Frederic and other leading patient experience professionals from Australia in October – for an unrivalled networking opportunity and unprecedented access to Australia’s leading patient experience champions.

If you wish to have a chat before the workshop, I’d be happy to get on a call. Drop me a note at avnesh@energesse.com or call 02 8091 0918.

 

‘E-Framing the Patient Journey’

Based on a True journey.

A friend, on holiday in Christchurch, broke her toe. Luckily, it was her fourth toe. Unluckily, her companions were one high-maintenance 4 year old and two suitcases. It was, bluntly, crap timing. Hobbling about, she headed to a clinic.

After a long wait, the nurse was brisk. Her toe was examined and it was explained to her that she would only get an x-ray if the doctor deemed it necessary. It was also explained that the reason for this is that the treatment would be the same whether or not the toe was fractured.

Waiting room number 2.

The doctor greeted her but faltered at her name. No, she didn’t have one of those long unpronounceable Indian names; it was just misspelled on the system.

The doctor laughed and shook his head, apologizing for his frontline team.  ‘Sorry. Kiwis can’t spell. My wife is a Kiwi, she’s terrible at it.’

‘I know!’ my friend agreed, quipping, ‘Spelling is the only time I feel like I don’t fit in as a Kiwi!’ Laughter and chatter ensued.

He got down to business, examined her toe, and ordered an x-ray. He reiterated what the nurse said about the treatment being the same either way.

Waiting room number 3.

It took 3 tries before the radiographer could locate the injury, and identified as being on the distal end (top part) of the fourth toe.

Waiting room number 4.

Fracture confirmed, the doctor asked about her activities over the next few days, whether she wanted her toe braced or strapped up for more comfort, and offered her crutches. Instructed to raise her feet while sitting and take painkillers when necessary, she thanked the doctor and left the clinic.

Let’s look at this patient journey through the lens of our 6E Framework:

This was a simple journey, yet one that could be measured.

There were parts of the Experience that were long and potentially frustrating (waiting times) and parts that had alignment and clarity e.g. the initial nurse assessment, the first consultation and differential diagnosis by the doctor, the confirmatory radiological investigation and then the final diagnosis and management plan by the doctor.

There would have been Emotions associated with waiting times and administrative mistakes (data entry errors), but there was humour and there was reassurance. The doctor displayed Energy in his engagement – he conveyed empathy with the patient, and communicated the treatment plan well, he knew his purpose and seemed personally satisfied with his work.

There was sufficient time spent in Execution (radiographer’s persistence with protocol and multi-disciplinary assessment (alignment of nurse’s communication with the doctor’s treatment).

My friend walked away from the clinic, satisfied. She felt like an individual. She connected, in a human way, with the doctor. She could see the team (nurse, doctor, radiographer) all working toward her diagnosis. As a result of their excellence, she wasn’t very frustrated with the four (!) waiting times, her misspelled name nor the pain she came in with.

In this case, as in many others, Excellence was defined by the patient, not simply by the providers.

In fact, I don’t think she cared to remember any lack in the clinic’s systems.

To her, the patient experience trumped the patient process. Herein lies the potential for Evolution in the patient journey.

To find out more about the 6 E framework for improving the Patient Experience, feel free to drop me a line.

 

It’s Not What You Think About Them. It’s How They Feel About You.

Walk into a healthcare boardroom and you’ll find C-suite managers poring over hard data reports, analytics that tell them that, mostly, all patients are happy with them, all KPIs have been achieved. Shimmy up to the nurse manager on duty, and you’ll find out that she’s weary but yay, three patients have been discharged (including the one with the demanding hubby), so it’s all good. Take the lift down to reception, and they’ll tell you different tales of woe and wonder. Why don’t these stories always align? After all, there is a myriad of measurement taking place – statistical data, patient surveys, focus groups, patient emails, improved processes and tools….

Creating a true, holistic picture of the patient experience is challenging. The disparate pieces of research that take place in a healthcare setting don’t always fit together or come together. Staff are listening to differing views, reading contradictory reports and acting on different outcomes and priorities. Indeed, in a 2015 patient experience survey of 1561 respondents from healthcare settings in over 21 countries, less than half had actually formally defined patient experience for their organisation (Beryl Institute).

Our 6E Framework aims to improve patient experience by offering healthcare settings a step-by-step guide on how to produce this true holistic picture. It not only gets you thinking about mapping the patient journey and uniting the disparate pieces of data that is collected throughout your setting on this ‘journey’ (EXPERIENCE), but it ensures the encapsulation of ‘patient stories’ and patient feelings (EMOTIONS) to build one clear purpose for all staff to follow (ENERGY) in improving the patient journey. It helps you develop an accurate strategic plan and implement solutions (EXECUTION) and ensures you measure and repeat your successes (EXCELLENCE). Ultimately, the framework develops your organisational capability in patient experience (EVOLUTION).

The Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust and Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust are examples of healthcare organisations that benefited from sound advice with improving their patient experience:

  • Response rates quadrupled, covering more age, gender and ethnicity groups.
  • Solid mapping and measurement of patient journey elements allowed for immediate implementable strategies – many as simple as the need to disseminate more information or provide further explanation to patients – to address concerns and issues.
  • When the patient experience measurement was repeated within the same year, the level of patient satisfaction had significantly increased – doubled and tripled in some cases!
  • In the Hertfordshire case, in some wards, 100% respondents felt listened to (up from 54%).

Patient Journeys. Emotions. A Team Living Its Purpose.

For some, these are soft, soppy, intangible metrics to measure. But for those in the industry of caring, there’s no denying its culture-changing results at the front-line.

Election Policies Need to Put Patients First

The Australian Federal Elections are drawing near. The Conservatives and the Labour Party are once again pitching their wares – fighting it out on who has the best health policy. Amongst the spouted sales spiel and all its nation-centric statistical data, the patient’s (what the policies are/should be ultimately all about) voice is lost.

A recently released book on ‘Patient-Provider Communication’ (Blackstone, Beukelman and Yorkston, April 2015), noted ‘that patients, health care providers, policy makers, and researchers live in nearly parallel universes with differing incentives, access to data and information, accountability expectations, and time frames for action’. What this alludes to is the potential for differing visions in patient healthcare, experiences and communications – resulting in a potentially disparate state of affairs.

What if patient experiences were given a larger focus in the formation of national health policies? How much more refined would policies be? Undoubtedly, communication between patients and their clinicians/hospital management will have more prominence in local and national policies. And from high-level policy to on-the-ground realities, issues like how to better communicate with the patient over things like a treatment or healthcare plan would get the attention it so rightfully deserves.

In my recent trip to the Beryl Institute Conference in Dallas, I had the good fortune of meeting with Dr. Tom Scaletta and Julie Danker – who lead patient experience initiatives at the Edward-Elmhurst Hospital – and found out how they manage patient communications. Regarded as one of the leaders in this space with their G.R.E.A.T. coaching techniques, they imparted practical insight into communication and engagement techniques that can help patients and clinicians.

Here are some key takeaways from them:

  • Contact patients the day after ED discharge – it keeps them safe and satisfied
  • Engage patients digitally – it reduces cost and increases reach
  • Automate work processes – it allows charge nurses and case managers to efficiently intervene at the right points in the workflow process
  • Build in an automated response mechanism/module into your systems – it allows for the acknowledgement of compliments and resolution of complaints by ED leaders
  • Measure, measure, measure – use statistically-valid metrics and patient comments to drive provider performance. We can always keep improving.

If you want to know more, watch the video below from our Patient Experience Channel (or check out www.eehealth.org/great)

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!

 

You are the Patient Experience

I was fortunate enough to attend the Beryl Institute Conference on Patient Experience in Dallas TX a few days ago. The Beryl Institute is one of the leading institutions worldwide on patient experience and it seemed like over 1000 delegates were involved in the community gatherings as well as special interest communities on Patient Advocacy, Pediatrics, and Physicians.

Healthcare leaders discussed elements of supportive design, University of California in San Francisco and American Academy on Communication in Healthcare and Language of Caring conducted activities on relationship building with patients and strategy maps on effective improvement planning. Communications skills were regarded as advanced physician skills required for the current healthcare climate.

I witnessed an outstanding keynote from  Cynthia Mercer discussing the importance of culture in an organization and how staff want a purpose to work on, not a place to work in. Another keynote from TV show host and healthcare advocate Montel Williams captivated the audience with his inspiring message of overcoming the odds through his personal experiences within the US health system.

He emphasised some of the major healthcare challenges coming in the next few years with predicted acute staff shortages and rising demands from patients with chronic disease. Consumers and patients will still expect a good experience, despite these issues and they will be vocal about it.

I had the opportunity to produce a few more episodes of our Patient Experience Channel. I am experimenting with shorter videos that contain quick tips for insights and implementation. Let me know what you think of these as I interviewed Colleen Sweeney,  patient experience rockstar from the US who is the Founder of the Empathy Project and researched patients’ fears in the health system.

Watch this video to find out patient’s no. 1 fear as they enter the health system (hospital)

On the local front, if you are based in New South Wales, we are sponsoring the Patient Experience Symposium organised by NSW Health at the Australian Technology Park Everleigh on May 5 and 6, 2016. Please come and visit our booth as we are proud to support the patient experience movement in NSW hospitals.

PEX

Finally, we acknowledge another happy customer! Sarah from NIB New Zealand had nice things to say about our work to help improve their customer experience.

“Dr Avi and team were very helpful in performing analysis which enabled us to isolate our top customer frustrations. The analysis was delivered in a timely manner, and their knowledge and enthusiasm for the topic was appreciated. The information provided by Dr Avi and team has been a great help to nib in focusing our efforts on improving customer experience.”

If you are having a challenge in your organisation you’d like to discuss , do feel free to reach out to me at avnesh@energesse.com. Happy to chat!

 

 

Do you know the common misconceptions in patient satisfaction?

The pulse of healthcare is now moving into a swing that smells like an Evolution, rather than a revolution. Everyone I speak to is starting to grasp the idea of ‘people power’ and frame it in the context of the healthcare system.

I hear words like patient satisfaction, patient experience, consumer engagement, patient-centred care and an evolutionary term – ‘Patient and Family Centred Care’. The latter is very appropriate as we often forget that children and critically ill patients have no voice for them, and it is the families that act as their voices. I can relate as this happened when my late father passed away in a hospital only 4 months ago.

Nevertheless, I am encouraged by these trends. Whilst many of these terms effectively mean the same thing, it is great to see these metrics embedded in the very fabric and Key Performance Indicators of many of our hospitals and primary care networks.

Watch the video of Australian 1st Real-Time Patient Feedback technology with Emotion analytics

However, not everyone feels this way. I hear objections from Chief Executives, Chief Financial Officers and other financially oriented personnel who do not believe in investing time or money in such initiatives as they perceive them to cost more money and don’t result in any savings or efficiencies.

I also hear objections from some clinicians and healthcare professionals who feel that this is the ‘soft, wishy-washy’ stuff that has no bearing on clinical outcomes for patients.

Both these sentiments are actually unfounded and incorrect.

It is in fact these sentiments and thought patterns that drive increased costs and poorer outcomes as these leaders cannot see the big picture of how change and improvement in healthcare really happens.  

 As a passionate advocate on innovation and patient-centred improvements, I searched globally for a proven solution that can help hospital and community health organisations in Australia (and now Asia) better engage with their patients, clients and consumers and solve many of the challenges they currently experience.

To learn more about this innovation, click here for the video of the MES Experience Debut at Australian Healthcare Week. Hope you enjoy it enough to share with your like-minded colleagues.