A new white paper by The Beryl Institute, featuring insight from Chip Conley, author of PEAK and founder of boutique hotel company Joie de Vivre, offers best practices from the hotel industry that can be translated to healthcare.
In the past year, both Disney and The Ritz Carlton announced deals with health systems to train staff on how to provide outstanding patient experience — something that is become increasingly important as healthcare becomes more consumer-driven. Because quality of care has reached such high levels over the last several decades, consumers no longer greatly differentiate facilities on quality; quality is an expectation. Instead, they have begun to use experience as the great differentiator, and hospitals are starting to look toward luxury hotel and lifestyle brands, which have long provided outstanding customer experience, to improve patient engagement.
Here are three best practices, among many discussed in the white paper, to create a PEAK patient experience.
1. Clearly define what you are trying to achieve and gain support across all levels. Because "patient experience" is a vague term, health systems need to define what outstanding patient experience will look like in their organization. Specific expectations for staff should be set, and buy-in for a cultural change around outstanding experience is needed.
2. Treat patients as guests. The white paper suggests moving patients up "the customer pyramid," which means providing services beyond a customer's basic expectations (level one) that begin to address their desires (level two). Under this model, hospitals should provide services that go beyond meeting basic needs in order to move from offering a commodity to a premium-priced product. As stated in the white paper, "If you want a little more pricing control, move from thinking about your patient as a sick person in a bed to a guest who’s looking at their whole experience."
3. Address patient experience systematically. Healthcare organizations have a tendency to view clinicians as primarily responsible for influencing patient experience; however, "every touch point in the hospital matters," according to the paper. Therefore, hospitals must ensure every encounter for the patient and his or her family — such as those with parking attendants and environmental services — has patient experience at top of mind.
In the past year, both Disney and The Ritz Carlton announced deals with health systems to train staff on how to provide outstanding patient experience — something that is become increasingly important as healthcare becomes more consumer-driven. Because quality of care has reached such high levels over the last several decades, consumers no longer greatly differentiate facilities on quality; quality is an expectation. Instead, they have begun to use experience as the great differentiator, and hospitals are starting to look toward luxury hotel and lifestyle brands, which have long provided outstanding customer experience, to improve patient engagement.
Here are three best practices, among many discussed in the white paper, to create a PEAK patient experience.
1. Clearly define what you are trying to achieve and gain support across all levels. Because "patient experience" is a vague term, health systems need to define what outstanding patient experience will look like in their organization. Specific expectations for staff should be set, and buy-in for a cultural change around outstanding experience is needed.
2. Treat patients as guests. The white paper suggests moving patients up "the customer pyramid," which means providing services beyond a customer's basic expectations (level one) that begin to address their desires (level two). Under this model, hospitals should provide services that go beyond meeting basic needs in order to move from offering a commodity to a premium-priced product. As stated in the white paper, "If you want a little more pricing control, move from thinking about your patient as a sick person in a bed to a guest who’s looking at their whole experience."
3. Address patient experience systematically. Healthcare organizations have a tendency to view clinicians as primarily responsible for influencing patient experience; however, "every touch point in the hospital matters," according to the paper. Therefore, hospitals must ensure every encounter for the patient and his or her family — such as those with parking attendants and environmental services — has patient experience at top of mind.
The complete white paper, titled "Creating "PEAK" Patient Experiences: Applying Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to Healthcare," is available for download at www.theberylinstitute.org.
Learn more about The Beryl Institute.