To paraphrase poet Maya Angelou, people may forget what you said, people may forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. That is the essence of the patient experience.
Health care organizations across the country are now actively recruiting hospitality industry leaders to enhance the patient experience — no more so than in Las Vegas.
Health care systems such as Southwest Medical Associates (part of OptumCare) and Dignity Health (St. Rose Dominican Hospitals — Nevada) have found Las Vegas, the mecca of hospitality, to be ideally suited, with local hospitality titans boasting leaders with expertise in building and delivering memorable and unique guest experiences.
By its nature, health care is focused on patients, but this has intensified in recent years because of the hyper-competitive health care landscape and increased patient empowerment, choice and expectations. In 2012, this shift was further fueled by Medicaid and Medicare tracking of patient satisfaction scores, which have a direct impact on health care providers. Consequently, health care providers are increasingly looking to the hospitality industry to enhance the patient experience.
A patient’s overall experience emerges from every interaction they have with a health care organization. An often-overlooked part of the patient experience is the range of interactions the patient’s support network (i.e., family members and friends) encounter during the patient’s stay. The way they are treated and kept in the loop about the patient’s care status bears significant weight. The patient and their support network often feel scared, confused and vulnerable, which tends to heighten their sensitivity. These perceptions are key parts of the patient experience. If the patient’s family members and friends are stressed, the patient also becomes stressed from worrying about them. Anxiety can be generated by unfamiliar sounds, unpleasant smells, the sight of lab coats and even sterile, clinical surroundings.
Patient experience leaders recruited from the hospitality industry feel the best practices of their industry can help reduce patient stress and fear originating from “cold” or “hard” environments, poor lighting, excessive signage, unpleasant odors, the sight of needles and presence of white coats, etc. Patient experience leaders tap into their hospitality industry skills to confront these sources of patient anxiety and address them while creating a consistently respectful and empathetic experience.
The new breed of patient experience leaders with a hospitality background view themselves as “disruptors” against the healthcare “process.” They believe health care should move beyond the traditional laser-like, task-oriented focus to that of a service provider and utilize hospitality industry-tested practices to soften health care through compassion, kindness and empathy. These leaders are improving the patient experience by changing the culture of their organizations. For many health care systems, this is not easy. Any proposed change is going head-to-head against years of traditional industry processes and systems.
Hospitality-trained patient experience leaders work at all levels of the organization, from administrators to physicians and front-line staff to shape a culture of welcome, kindness and respect. These relationships are essential to bring about change, maintain momentum for transformation and stabilize these changes throughout a health care organization.
Infusing hospitality into health care goes well beyond smiling employees and “softening” the system. Today’s patient experience leaders are a new set of eyes bringing a fresh perspective, re-evaluating the look and feel of their health care facilities and the service of the entire organization — everything from the curb appeal, furniture, fixtures, lighting, flooring and acoustics are evaluated to make visiting the health care center as pleasant an experience as possible.
For Southwest Medical, talking to patients and getting their unbiased feedback led to changes both in how they carried out health care to how they designed their new health care centers. Complementary medical services are now more often located next to each other. For example, OB/GYN and pediatrics have been co-located in many of their health care centers, which means that mothers and their babies can both receive care. Meanwhile, laboratory and other tests are now located on site at the same health care centers needing those tests for patient diagnoses.
To make hospitals more welcoming, inviting and user-friendly, atriums now bask in natural light, filled with soft, soothing music and donned with large scenic murals. Waiting rooms are renamed lounges and medical facilities are now called a campus instead. These subtle name changes have guests more relaxed and think of the facility as more of an educational center and healing environment than a hospital. Barriers such as glass partitions separating customers and staff are now eliminated, counter heights are lowered and visitors and information desks are downsized and cleared of clutter to eliminate visual obstruction with customers.
In many newly constructed care centers, healing gardens with lush fragrant flowers, fountains and waterfalls reinforce the healing aspect of the facility and offer quiet solitude and reflection. For the convenience of the patient’s support network, large family/group tables are now provided in the dining area, coffee and tea bars for a moment of pause and comfort are conveniently located, and even phone charging stations are now available. Lounges are equipped with tranquil aquariums and patient progress monitors are provided to ease the anxieties of family and friends. Instead of continuous chairs lined in a row from end-to-end with limited privacy, lounge seating areas are now rearranged into intimate groupings to facilitate private discussions.
For a true hospitable touch, greeters and guides are placed at building entrances to welcome and assist patients, families and visitors. This first impression of a warm welcome sets the tone for the rest of the stay and serves as a calming and reassuring presence that they are in good hands.
In the patient rooms, a family and friends lounging area with a pullout bed and work desk allow for a more comfortable and productive stay when visiting the patient. Food services now offer extended-hour room service to the patient rooms and makes it available for visiting family members, as well as patients. Open visitation hours allow family and friends to visit the patient at their convenience and face time with the caregivers. Quieter hallways and work stations, reduced bedside alarm “pings and beeps” make for more soothing stays for both patients and their support network. Even dashboards are used to monitor patient anxieties, risks, history and preferences to offer more tailored, patient-specific care.
These hospitality-inspired changes not only create a better experience for the patient and visitors, but also foster more satisfied patients, transforming health care in the process. It is important to note that research shows patients who feel more satisfied with their care have fewer falls, better outcomes and lower readmission rates.
Patients have a choice when it comes to their health care. Today, the internet offers transparency in the health care marketplace and helps patients research and select health care facilities. Sites such as www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov compare hospitals on how well these facilities meet the 26 Medicare performance measures. Additionally, patient review sites (e.g., ZocDoc and Angie’s List) and social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) help potential customers research and compare health care services.
When someone we love is ill and needs care, we are immediately thrust into an unfamiliar and unnerving world. Everyone involved struggles to make sense of what is happening during that time. A hospitable experience can make that world a better place. The health care industry, and really our increasingly complex modern world, can benefit from a more humanitarian approach where compassion, kindness and empathy abide. Maybe the introduction of hospitality to health care is just the beginning.