Delivering comfortable, supportive and compassionate care has become essential to a hospital's success in the era of patient satisfaction. While hospital visits often last days, a 2013 study found that the average time a physician spends with his or her patients is a mere eight minutes, suggesting all hospital employees must play an active role in the patient experience to insure high levels of satisfaction.
In a recent article published in STAT, Jim Hemmer, the CEO of WorkStride, offered four strategies hospitals can implement to make all employees active in improving the patient experience. WorkStride is a New York-based company that constructs employee incentive programs for clients.
Here are the four strategies:
1. Create and disseminate a set of core values and goals to guide the behaviors of all employees from the CEO to maintenance workers.
2. Give employees avenues to provide feedback regarding policies, procedures and equipment issues that could be hindering their ability to deliver the best possible care. Use the advice to make appropriate changes.
3. Create a program to reward employees that exemplify the core values and goals of the hospital.
4. Use patient surveys and feedback mechanisms to consistently provide employees with the patient's perspective and reinforce caring behaviors.
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