A Leader's Role in the Patient Experience

Healthcare is a highly regulated and in some cases, a highly competitive environment.  Healthcare delivery is changing at a rapid pace. Healthcare leaders are learning how to adapt and lead their hospitals into the future.  The center for Medicare services over the last few years adapted the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems; better known as HCAPHS patient satisfaction scores to tie patient satisfaction in the calculation of reimbursement for patient stays (CMS, 2015).

Hospitals in competitive environments focus on how to deliver care and stand out from the competition. Additionally, social media has changed how patients share their healthcare experiences.  Patients can praise or complain about their hospital experiences on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like.

Leaders are in a great position to help staff understand the importance of patient experience to an organization, whether it be to improve overall scores or patient perception. Quality care is increasingly linked to efficiency, cost reduction and optimal utilization of resources. Healthcare quality care programs and metrics are increasingly influenced by financial incentives and measured by state of the art scientific tools and sophisticated methodologies. (Belasen, Eisenberg & Huppertz, 2016 p 144)

Patients and families view their experience of care in its entirety: The clinical treatment, the interactions with staff, and the physical and ambient environment all tie together as one, overall impression and journey. Leaders and caregivers who commit to observing and learning in detail about this journey quickly identify what needs to improve to create a better experience. (IHI, 2011)

How can you as a leader showcase the importance of patient experience in your workplace? Interpersonal relationships can go a long way to helping organizations improve scores. Effective leaders practice with conviction, and demonstrate the importance of the caregiver/patient relationship.

 An important leadership quality is social intelligence. “Socially intelligent leaders have strong conversation and listening skills, a keen understanding of social roles and rules, confidence in interacting with different types of people and a fine-tuned ability to understand other’s thoughts and feelings.” (Sowick et al, 2015) One of my favorite quotes is from Maya Angelou “I have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”  This statement holds true not only to the patient’s we serve but also how we as leaders serve our teams.

 Leaders of today must use both transactional leadership skills and transformational leadership skills to be an effective leader in today’s workplace.  Being the vison setter to bring new ideas forward, to have the courage to lead by example and advocate for employees and patients will go a long way toward improving not only the patient but staff experience.

References

Balik, B. (2011, July). Institute for Healthcare improvement, Patient Safety Reprinted from ACHE.org

Belasen, A. T., Eisenberg, B, Huppertz, J. W., (2016). Mastering Leadership: A Vital Resource for Health Care Organizations, pgs.

https://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/search.html

Sowick, M, Andenoro, A, McNutt, M, Murphy, S.E (2015) Leadership 2050: Critical Challenges, Key Contexts, and Emerging Trends; Emerald Group

Provided by Robyn McDevitt, Graduate Student, Saint Joseph's College