Delivering excellent patient experience starts with leaders creating and supporting environments conducive to achieving good experiences between RNs and patients.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton may be grabbing all the headlines, but in healthcare circles, patient experience is the topic on everyone's mind.
"I can tell you that even though I have the title, everybody in our organization is talking about it, asking how to do it better, [and] wanting to know what they need to do differently to really get us to that next level," Sandra Myerson, MBA, MS, BSN, RN, chief patient experience officer at Mt. Sinai Health System in New York told me recently.
Related: The Hidden Patient Experience
So what's the secret to achieving high-level patient experience? There's no one-size-fits all answer, but here are some of my favorite insights on patient experience from Myerson and other leaders I've talked with recently.
1. Acknowledge Patients' Suffering
With illness there is suffering—on many levels.
"Even if you're sitting in the waiting room for 30 minutes waiting to be seen and you're just there for your annual physical, there's some level of suffering going on," says Kelley Dillon, director of care experience at Henry Ford Hospital and Health Network in Detroit.
Related: How Henry Ford Health System Is Prioritizing Clinician Communication
"You have to sit there and wait. You're doing it because it's the right thing to do. But you'd much rather be having lunch with a friend."
This calls for creating a culture where all employees communicate with compassion "because that's the way our customers will always come to us," Dillon says.
2. Create 'Radical Convenience'
"The things the customer really cares about, and you see [this] in focus groups—it's convenience and affordability. They're the top two things at the top of mind with the consumer today," says William Conway, MD, executive vice president at Henry Ford Health System, chief executive officer for Henry Ford Medical Group in Detroit.
To meet the consumers' needs, organizations should become "radically convenient," a term Conway coined. This means giving patients multiple options to connect with your organization. At Henry Ford, patients can, "click, call, and come-in," Conway says.
Use "whatever approach you would like to solve your problem," he explains. "You can go to a walk-in clinic, you can use My Chart form of communication with staff, or use the traditional telephone."
3. Apply the '90/5' Rule
Nurses often say they feel like they don't have time to spend with their patients the way they used to. The '90/5' rule can help put them back at the bedside where both they and their patients want them to be.
"90% of what you [nurses] need is within five seconds of you," explains Pamela L. Dunley, MS, MBA, RN, vice-president, chief operating officer and chief nursing officer at Elmhurst (IL) Hospital.
"If, for whatever reason, something wasn't stocked right, or they didn't have the right mix at that moment, then it starts getting stressful. As long as they have what they need to do their job, then they want to make sure the patient has the best experience."
4. Appreciate Your Staff
Letting staff know they're valued is more than something that's just nice to do, it's essential to moving an organization toward a culture that focuses on patient experience.
"If [staff] don't feel appreciated, they're not going to step up. They'll be very resistant to change," Myerson says. "If they're coming in and just trying to slog through the day so they get a paycheck and go home, when it comes time to implement a change, they're unlikely to jump on board."
This connection can be made through leadership rounds and by publicly rewarding and recognizing staff who display behaviors that are compassionate, warm, and team-based, she says.
Jennifer Thew, RN, is the senior nursing editor at HealthLeaders.