Improving the Patient Experience in Healthcare: 5 Strategies
Being in the hospital is often a stressful experience for patients. It can be difficult to handle physical pain, bad news, stress over lost wages, and fear all at the same time. There are ways to ease the burden by improving the patient experience in healthcare facilities.
Hospitals are often portrayed as cold, bleak facilities. With rooms and beds that fail to offer anything resembling the comforts of home and a team of staff too busy to provide compassion to patients, the experience can be scary and uncomfortable.
Administrators can focus on improving patient experience in healthcare to optimize patient satisfaction scores and health outcomes, while ensuring appropriate reimbursement and safety accreditation for their facility.
Below, we’ll explain what it really means to focus on the patient experience, describe why it’s important, and provide five key ways your facility can give the high-quality care your patients deserve.
What Does “The Patient Experience” Mean?
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) defines the patient experience as the range of interactions the patient has with the healthcare system. From the moment an individual steps foot in the hospital to weeks after discharge home, it’s the responsibility of the healthcare facility to ensure the best possible experience for patients.
The AHRQ outlines eight aspects of care that are appreciated by patients:
- Access to care
- Courtesy and respect
- Care coordination
- Culturally appropriate care
- Communication with clinicians
- Getting information
- Shared decision making
- Self management support
Hospital administrators who focus on these eight elements can make great gains in improving the patient experience in healthcare. However, it can be challenging for facilities to understand the significance of these factors in the context of healthcare management.
What Is the Importance of Patient Experience in Healthcare?
Converting basic principles into high-quality care requires hospitals to understand how patients feel about their facility. To assess each patient’s opinion and to make improvements for the future, administrators must routinely survey each patient after their hospital stay.
The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) program helps conduct these surveys and compiles hospital data regarding each patient experience. Examples of core items measured include:
- Health plan customer service—“In the last 12 months, how often did your health plan’s customer service give you the information or help you needed?”
- How well doctors communicate—“In the last 12 months, how often did your personal doctor explain things in a way that was easy to understand?”
- Efficiency and timing of care— “In the last 12 months, how often did you get an appointment to see a specialist as soon as you needed?”
Survey results from each healthcare facility are posted publicly for patients to reference when choosing where to receive care. It’s important for hospitals to find innovative ways to improve patient experience in healthcare to optimize patient outcomes and build a more satisfied staff.
How Do Good Patient Experiences Help Healthcare Facilities?
There are many benefits for facilities that focus on improving the patient experience. In healthcare settings, clinical and financial incentives encourage administrators to ensure that patients are satisfied with their care.
Clinical benefits include:
- Improved patient outcomes
- Greater patient adherence to recommendations on treatments and medications
- Better patient self-management for disease prevention
Financial incentives include:
- Higher reimbursement payments (funded by CMS value-based purchasing initiatives and Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement policies)
- Lower rates of employee turnover
- Fewer malpractice payouts
Now that you understand why it’s important to focus on improving the patient experience, let’s dive into some ways your facility can make receiving care a more pleasant encounter for your patients.
What Are the 5 Key Initiatives of the Patient Experience?
When exploring answers to the question “What are ways to improve patient experience in hospital settings?” it can be tough to know where to begin. Altering environmental and interpersonal factors can help your patients have a better stay while receiving treatment.
Here are five methods of improving patient experience in healthcare to help get your facility started.
1. Minimize Wait Times
Optimizing patient flow and maximizing staffing efficiency can help reduce wait times.
In the event of any delays, communicate with the patient and give an estimated treatment time. Studies show that when patients are notified of long wait times and delays, hospitals receive higher patient experience scores. Provide a clean, comfortable space with plenty of natural light for patients while they wait.
2. Establish Compassionate Rapport
Patients appreciate it when healthcare staff show an interest in their care. In addition to actively listening and speaking with an empathetic tone, providers can build better nonverbal behaviors. Improving the patient experience in healthcare requires strong eye contact, face-to-face communication, and relaxed facial expressions.
Also, giving each patient the time and attention they deserve is important. Try to minimize rushing to the next room when giving education, and always confirm that the patient understands your teaching prior to exiting.
3. Incorporate Healthcare Technology Into Your Plan of Care
Advanced communication and scheduling technologies make it easy for your patient to receive information on their treatments, medications, and appointments on a phone or tablet.
Online patient portals are convenient for distributing personalized health information (test results, radiology images, etc.). Linking reliable, evidence-based scientific resources to your hospital’s website can help patients understand their health data.
Patients are more likely to respond to surveys and be on time for appointments if forms are able to be filled out online. Making it easier for patients to be involved in their care improves outcomes and reduces facility spending.
4. Optimize Staff Morale
Happier healthcare providers provide better care for their patients. Improving the patient experience in healthcare requires high staff satisfaction scores and work-life balance. Helping staff members feel engaged and empowered at work is a key way to make patients feel cared for.
5. Frequently Assess Patient Feedback for Opportunities to Improve
CAHPS surveys comprise one method of helping patients feel heard; hospitals are encouraged to collect their own patient experience data to ensure quality care and find areas of improvement. You can create paper surveys, discharge phone call questionnaires, or solicit online feedback to compile details.
Discover More Ways to Improve the Patient Experience at Your Facility
Understanding the fundamentals of improving the patient experience in healthcare can help your facility stand out among the rest. Don’t miss out on more ways to improve patient satisfaction scores, staff wellness, and health outcomes; find all this — and more — in the IntelyCare newsletter.