Main article: Optimizing the patient experience from the C-suite
NewYork-Presbyterian’s comprehensive patient experience strategy has led to year-over-year improvements in key metrics during the past three years, says Rick Evans, senior vice president and chief experience officer.
He credits the organization’s rolling, three-year patient experience plan, which defines targets and sets strategies for a variety of metrics, including responsiveness of staff.
Creating a culture that values responsiveness
Today, responding to call lights outside of patient rooms is everyone’s job at NewYork-Presbyterian, whether they are nurses, chaplains, transporters or C-suite leaders. Leaders have implemented “no-pass zones” to improve call-bell responses and create more accountability for the patient experience at all levels of the organization.
“Call-bell is a proxy for how much the patient thinks we care,” says Evans. “We’re trying to implement a culture where you don’t walk by a call light, no matter who you are.”
Evans (pictured) responds to call lights when he is on the patient floors, sometimes fulfilling a simple task such as getting a patient a jacket. “While I am not going to ambulate a patient or give meds, I am perfectly capable of helping a patient put on a jacket — and I saved the nurse a call bell so that she could be operating at the top of her skill set,” he says.
After implementing the change, along with proactive rounding by nurses to address patients’ pain, positioning and personal hygiene, the hospital has boosted its “responsiveness of staff” score on the HCAHPS survey by six percentage points in the past few years.
Improving discharge information
Another low-tech change — keeping a discharge envelope in a bedside bin throughout a patient’s stay — has helped the hospital raise its “discharge information” scores on the HCAHPS survey by 10 percentage points.
Before the change was made, Evans says, patients did not always recognize that the handouts they received were discharge information if staff did not explicitly refer to them as such. Now, when nurses provide the patient with any type of handout about their medication or care plan, they place it in the discharge envelope and inform the patient, “This is your discharge information.”
From low-tech to high-tech
Beyond focusing on staff communication and responsiveness to improve the patient experience, leaders at NewYork-Presbyterian are investing in more technology-driven strategies. One is the health system’s new telemedicine initiative, which allows patients to receive virtual consultations via kiosks in New York City drug stores or via their smartphones or desktop computers.
Using technology to improve patient access is increasingly important as patients evolve into consumers of healthcare who value convenience when selecting providers, Evans says.
“Let’s not pretend consumerism isn’t here,” he says. “We have to acknowledge that we are dealing with marketplaces where choice is becoming more and more of a factor.”
