Introcomm

04/05/2013

Exceptional customer service for patients and their families is becoming the currency for health system prosperity. Long the domain of mission statements and staff training programs, the is now a critical business priority. Systems that employ two essential business competencies to consistently deliver exceptional experiences will outdistance themselves from competitors on multiple fronts.

04/04/2013

Join the Discussion: Do you view Patient Experience as Customer Service?

Understanding also follows what is known from the larger customer experience space. Customer Experience is an interaction between an organization and a customer as perceived through a customer's conscious and subconscious mind. It is a blend of an organization's rational performance, the senses stimulated and emotions evoked and intuitively measured against customer expectations across all moments of contact.

Viewing patient experience as a customer service means approaching patients as customers, and to design the end-to-end patient experience accordingly.

04/03/2013

As is often the case now that reimbursement will either be augmented by excellent scores or penalized by poor scores, a great deal of attention is focused on improving the patient’s experience. A 2008 Institute of Healthcare Improvement white paper, Seven Leadership Leverage Points for Organization-Level Improvement in Health Care (Second Edition), states that “the currency of leadership is attention.” If this is true, then to improve the patient experience leadership needs to focus and truly make the patient experience a priority. With the attention and priority focus of the chief executive officer, the patient experience will improve. And with a more satisfied and engaged customer, the health of the individual will improve as will the health of the community. And, after all, this is what healthcare is all about—improving health and saving lives.

04/02/2013

According to a recent study done by HealthLeaders Media:

- 22% say lack of cultural fit or employee buy-in is their organization’s biggest patient experience stumbling block
While 56% say making physicians, nurses, and staff accountable for patient satisfaction as part of their compensation/employment status is important
- Only 17% say tying executive compensation to patient experience is important
- And only 14% of leaders say the CEO has primary responsibility for patient experience

04/01/2013

"The end result of improving the patient experience is improving the quality of care…. It will help you save lives. It is not a guest relations program."
—Kim Bordenkircher, CEO, Henry County Hospital, Napoleon, OH

03/29/2013

To effectively combat patient readmissions, hospitals can benefit from a foundational strategy that starts first and foremost with the patient – and efforts that are aimed at improving HCAHPS
scores are an excellent initial step. The majority of the HCAHPS survey questions address communications between caregivers and patients. Effective communications is fundamental to
ensuring that patients become engaged in their care and, consequently, better equipped to follow discharge instructions and self-monitor after leaving the acute care setting.

03/28/2013

It's here: This week's blog post! HCAHPS Scores Closely Tied To Readmission Rates:

"...as hospital performance on HCAHPS increased, readmission penalties decreased. Very low HCAHPS performance (scores of 0–19 was associated with much-higher-than-average readmission penalties, and very high HCAHPS performance (80–100) was associated with much-lower-than-average readmission penalties."

Read More...

With Medicare payment penalties for excess readmissions now in effect, reducing readmissions has become a top priority for hospitals and other stakeholders. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Se...

03/27/2013

A sustainable discharge strategy comprises identifying and addressing patient-specific factors that could lead to readmission, strategic patient education, developing a patient-focused after-care plan and ensuring a smooth transition to a post-acute setting. Tactics that drive success in achieving sustainable discharges include: dedicated patient transition coaches, proactive planning for non-medical barrier to treatment adherence, post-discharge phone calls, scheduled follow-up care, and use of cross-setting discharge planning tools and teams.

Effective communications is fundamental to ensuring that patients become engaged in their care and, consequently, better equipped to follow discharge instructions and self-monitor after leaving the acute care setting. - David Harlow:
The Harlow Group

03/26/2013

Check out this video by Dr. Cheri Quincy, "The Overlooked Importance Of Patient Education."

In this segment, Dr. Cheri Quincy of the Amitabha Medical Clinic and Healing Center focuses on the problem that lack of medical education presents within the...

03/25/2013

"The patient satisfaction mission is a critical one and our understanding and support of it is essential to the care of our patients and the credibility of our profession... The goal of the patient experience mission is to ensure that all our patient interactions culminate in decreased patient anxiety, increased patient understanding and hopefully improved patient compliance and outcomes. And we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that each of these outcomes is a valid end-point in its own right." - MARK A. RUDOLPH, MD

The patient satisfaction mission is a critical one and our understanding and support of it is essential to the care of our patients.

03/22/2013

Are you ready to improve communication with your patients, improve your patient perception, patient experience and reduce your readmission rates with improved communication? Introcomm provides a custom communications solution beginning with the admissions and discharge processes. Find out how we can help you improve communication by improving systems you already have in place (meaning little to no additional out of pocket expense).

Contact us today!

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03/21/2013

Join the Discussion: "Do happy employees make happy patients? Certainly they create more satisfied patients, certainly more loyal patients," Judy Bee, a Medical Economics editorial consultant says. "And, when you have employees who will go the extra mile 'just because,' you're going to have patients who wouldn't think of going anywhere else."
Are your employees happy? Does it show in their work?

An inspired employee gives his or her all to their employer, and is constantly striving to be and do their best; to use their skills and talents to their full potential.