Abstract
Summer is winding down. I find myself trying to cling to lazy vacation days with family and friends. Some time is spent reviewing articles for this issue and I cant help but be proud of the quality pieces represented herein. The patient experience movement has come a long way…and still has more to go.
I’m noticing that many hospitals are struggling to balance patient experience with the employee/staff experience.
Transparency is a great example. Online posting of physician ratings is difficult for many physicians to embrace. I often hear comments like ‘We aren’t retail’ and ‘shouldn’t be graded on Yelp.’ Notably, however, USNWR is beginning to post social media and validated survey ratings and comments online. When requests are made to adjust the comments or to remove them altogether, the physician often feels the comment isn’t accurate, the patient is cognitively impaired, or the patient was not in agreement with the treatment plan.
Yet when you ask patients, they want to see what other patients say about their experience with a clinician. More importantly, they want to know how that clinician made them feel. Did they feel respected and known as a human or just another co-pay? An internal survey revealed our patients wanted to see the good, the bad, and the comments gave any star ratings more credibility in their mind. They also articulated being able distinguish outliers when making an opinion.
Lab results is another example. Many clinicians worry that making lab results immediately available to patients is bad medicine. The might feel that the patient wont be able to interpret the lab for themselves and it will generate extra calls to the office, not to mention raising subsequent anxiety. Yet, patients sometimes wait weeks to get a phone call from their care team about their test results. If they get a phone call or message at all. These can be simple follow up labs, like a blood glucose, or life altering labs, like cancer or pregnancy markers. If you have ever waited to board a delayed plane without updates or in line at the DMV, you already know waiting isn’t a good feeling.
The patient and employee experiences also sometimes bump heads when it comes to organizational strategy. Many organizations seek to elevate the experience of employees and staff so they can truly thrive and also to increase productivity and the patient experience. We’ve all seen the books on how the patient comes second. On the other hand, our prior CEO created the mantra of Patients First years ago because he truly believed that we exist to serve the patient. Isn’t that what hospitals actually do?
Patients and our employees are not standing on equal ground. One group may not even be standing. Yet we talk about their experience as though they are equal - equally weighted with equivalent capabilities.
In many ways this journal is about perspective, which is why we this month’s featured artist is so special. The artist behind “In Their Shoes” is Cali Volpe, a talented young 13-year old who has been drawing since she was three years old. This piece was done specifically for our Journal and her only instructions were to try to capture what empathy and patient experience might mean in her eyes.
“Empathy is to put one’s self ‘into someone else’s shoes.’ I tried to capture the literal meaning of the expression, a shared sense of emotion and a physical connection between the boy, girl and environment.” As you can see, “the girl was drawn sitting, filled with genuine sorrow, in a large shoe. The gloomy feel of the background really sets the tone and the boy is presented sitting in a tree with the same shoes on as what the girl is sitting in. The boy is crying, with his hands covering his eyes, as if he is going through hard times. This allows the girl in the shoe to clearly sympathize for the boy, thus putting herself “in his shoes.” – Cali Volpe, 13, Mickleton, NJ
The original piece was done using colored pencils and alcohol-based markers on canvas. In addition to drawing, Cali is also a talented musician who plays regularly throughout Southern New Jersey,