Show, Don't Tell Patient Experience

A couple months ago, one of my family members was in the hospital recuperating from back surgery. Although I wanted to visit, I stayed away so she could get  some rest, because she was awakened almost hourly for check-ups.

Though her experience in the hospital was long and resulted in some complications, when I met up with her weeks after her discharge, she was still texting the nurses she had befriended during her stay.

This got me thinking about patient experience and how little details like keeping the lights off while checking on a sleeping patient can transform grumpy patients into grateful patients.

From a financial standpoint, patient experience is gaining importance as a measure of quality. The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey scores  will soon be directly tied to financial  incentives for hospitals and health facilities.

How patients answer 17 questions posed in Medicare's HCAHPS survey determines 30% of each hospital's score and a chance to receive a share of $850 million that will be deducted from Medicare's payments to 3,500 hospitals in FY 2013.

The trickledown effect for marketers creates pressure to reflect a positive and relatable patient experience in campaign messages.

Alabama-based Jacksonville Medical Center (JMC) is trying to do just that. Though the 89-bed hospital is ranked number one hospital for patient satisfaction for North Calhoun County, its recognition in the community is small, based on community survey data.

"Consumer perception studies show that the larger the facility is, almost always is going to have a more positive perception than a smaller hospital," said Beth Wright, vice president of corporate communications & strategic marketing at Capella Healthcare. "It's the halo effect."

The challenge for JMC is to overcome this halo effect and market its high (99^th percentile last quarter) satisfaction scores to draw a larger patient volume.

JMC produced billboards and ads with blue ribbons with the words "number one in patient satisfaction" but the message did not resonate with the local audience, explains Jim Edmonson, CEO of JMC.

For the second marketing attempt, JMC is showing (instead of telling) why it is   ranked high for patient satisfaction. JMC will soon launch video testimonials of 15 unpaid patients/families who have had telling patient experiences at the hospital.

One features Bill Meehan, president of Jacksonville State University, who suffered a heart attack and credits JMC with saving his life. Another features a soldier who was able to watch the birth of his child from overseas.

The powerful real life messages are expected to reach more potential patients, Edmonson says.

"Word of mouth is our strongest marketing tool. Now [patients] can see for themselves, it wasn't good enough that we were just saying that we're number one in patient satisfaction," he says.

JMC was sustaining 90^th percentile rankings until it hit a wall during the second quarter when it fell to 74^th. The scenario was puzzling – leadership had already established patient satisfaction standards such as hourly rounds, bedside shift reports, and post-discharge calls within 24 hours.

The answer was staff complacency about following these established protocols. To address the problem, leadership scheduled mandatory refresher training, and the next quarter scores were back up in the 99^th percentile, Edmonson says.

Staff just needed little reminders about keeping a patient focus --- the same message they hope to remind the community. A hospital's walls can literally be crumbling around patients, but if the staff stays positive, there will be a trickledown effect to patients.

The best patient satisfaction score Edmonson remembers during his 16 years as a hospital CEO was when the ER at Hillside Hospital in Pulaski, TN was under construction. 

“The staff was so concerned, they were saying ‘I’m sorry about the noise’ or ‘I’m sorry about the dust,’” he says. “The place was as raunchy as it could be but the staff was extremely empathetic and that resonated with patients.”

For more information on boosting patient experience sign up for my Quantify and Cultivate Patient Engagement webcast airing September 22. I'll be talking with Jeanne Kuriyan, Principal, as well as June Connor and Sandra Mackey from Emory Healthcare about how to keep 90th percentile patient satisfaction scores.