Talk about “Patient Experience” will increase at Loma Linda University Health — a lot. But it won’t be all talk.
Expect action in which every employee has a part in ensuring the safest, highest-quality care — care that is patient-centered and mission-focused, according to Jennifer McDonald, executive director of patient experience.
“All of us, whether directly or indirectly involved in clinical care, have a role to play in ensuring compassionate, Christ-focused service in our hospitals and clinics,” she said.
To create traction, a conference held June 1 at Centennial Complex kicked off the conversation, attended by 300 key stakeholders across campus. These summits will be held quarterly, during which leaders from across the organization will engage in discussion of implementing best practices through the lens of whole person care.
The first changes are rolling out immediately, many of which are based on the recognition that improving patient care necessarily includes making sure employees feel valued and listened to.
Tools have been posted on a new, dedicated Patient Experience page on One Portal. Several documents are already there regarding first steps, with more materials to come, including an FAQ section to assist leaders with any questions they may have.
All employees will go through a required two-hour training to begin this cultural transformation. The trainings will go live in July with a train-the-trainer approach and then system-wide beginning in August.
Leader rounding for employee satisfaction
Team leaders (those authorized with hiring/firing duties) will now keep their calendars clear each Tuesday from 2-3 p.m. to round with their staff — talking with five or more of their employees each week.
These rounds are not punitive but rather the opposite: this type of interaction is the single best way to raise employee and physician satisfaction, according to McDonald.
As they make these rounds, department leaders will employ the CONNECT-GRETE conversational script for establishing interpersonal connection, which was developed by LLU Center for Spiritual Life and Wholeness. (GRETE is part of the “Connect” step of the CLEAR Whole Person Care model). Employees will then be able to incorporate the discussion model with patients and coworkers.
Briefly, GRETE can be summarized as:
• Greet with kindness
• Recognize and introduce
• Explain purpose
• Time: provide timeframe
• Engage and invite a response
A guide to the full meaning of GRETE, along with documents that managers must fill out when rounding with their employees, is available on the One Portal’s Patient Experience page.
Stop and shine a light
Also found on that page is the new “Leader Stoplight Report” that managers will be required to complete monthly and share with their direct reports and their own supervisor.
“The Stoplight Reports will create transparency and accountability,” McDonald said, “ensuring that employees have the resources they need to do their jobs and provide top patient care.”
On the reports, team leaders will document employee suggestions and requests made during the Tuesday rounds. Such items will remain on the reports until they are resolved or put on hold with documented reasoning.
Patient knowledge = patient power
Also rolling out immediately institution-wide will be a new and improved inpatient discharge folder — both better designed and more informative.
The packets will help soon-to-be-discharged patients who are going home to fully understand the treatments they received, the status of their health, and how to care for themselves going forward.
Phone calls to newly discharged patients will come soon.
To better inform patients during their hospital stays, a standardized Patient Care Board is being piloted on one unit at each of the six Loma Linda hospitals.
Placed at each bedside, the boards will give every patient a thorough understanding of his or her health condition and care plan, including procedures and tests needed — and why.
“Our patients must be informed and educated throughout every stage of their care,” McDonald said.
What is Patient Experience?
McDonald said that a positive patient experience comes down to how caregivers make their patients feel — listened to, prioritized, cared for.
“Exceeding patient expectations will be the result of this system-approach to whole person care as we increase accountability and employee satisfaction,” she said.
Time, effort and a learning curve will be required in order to make new processes habitual and routine, but all the steps being taken will connect directly to capably fulfilling Loma Linda University Health’s mission to continue the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus Christ.
McDonald and Lyndon Edwards, MBA, MHS, senior vice president for adult services at LLU Medical Center, note that this is not a one-off project. It is an aligned, accountable, mission-driven system-approach to providing healthcare.
Edwards said, “We are entering an unending cultural transformation in which we will always strive to improve the patient experience and better learn to follow Jesus Christ’s example of compassionate service. We will become the best place to work and practice medicine, offering the highest-quality, safest healthcare to change our patients’ lives.”