Patient experience is becoming increasingly important. It’s a trend that isn’t only impacting imaging departments but healthcare providers as a whole.

Michael Jordan, MHA, CRA, RT(R), director of imaging services at Atrium Health Union and Crystal Parlier, RT(R), (M), director of imaging services at Atrium Health Lincoln spoke to HealthCare Business News about how two hospitals within a single healthcare system in North Carolina made significant gains in improving the overall patient experience

HCB News: You have had some unique successes regarding patient experience at your hospitals. From a top level perspective, what changes did you make and when did you know you were getting the right results?

Michael Jordan: From the beginning this has been about changing the culture in the department. While there is a lot of talk about patient first always, the accountability that is necessary to create and maintain this culture was the genesis of the journey.

We, the leadership, not only role modeled it, but had to remove barriers that teammates brought to us. Removal of barriers meant that there was no excuse for teammates not to be accountable for their actions. They had the tools in their patient experience tool box, now they were being held accountable to use them, and do so consistently.

We saw the scores going up into the top decile. We got patient comments back from surveys about the great experience that was had. This was not how I knew the culture had changed. The day that I overheard a teammate talking with a peer, encouraging them with ways to get their scores up was the day I knew we had a changed culture. The teammates fully owned the experience their patients were receiving in our department. It isn’t always easy – process changes usually aren’t. But teammates, not leadership, have taken the lead in finding out what is happening and making changes so that the patient has the best experience.

Crystal Parlier: Lincoln started a Patient Experience Champion Team late in 2015. In 2016, we started meeting weekly and concentrating on some areas that we were struggling in. Action plans were put in place and we invited more front-line staff to the meeting. With front-line staff there, we knew that we were truly getting the staff and patients feedback on how or what we needed to improve to make our department better and the experience that our patients have while receiving care with us a great one.

We did daily work observations as well to see how teammates were interacting with their patients. We use a survey to get patient feedback and comments from patients. We review metrics that are sent to us from our survey each week at our Patient Experience team meetings and compare our modalities and departments to others in our system.

HCB News: We know that we're moving toward a value-based paradigm in healthcare, but why should patient experience be a special focus in the imaging department?

MJ: It's the right thing to do. That is why patient experience should always be not a special focus, but the main focus of any imaging department. We can discuss the intricacy of value-based models, but the bottom line remains that the best patient experience is the right thing to do. We have a saying here in the south: Treat every patient like they are your mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, brother or sister. Treat them like they are family, especially family that you like. As providers in healthcare, no matter what your title, we are entrusted with patients’ lives. We have an obligation not just to treat the illness, but care for the entire patient.

CP: Our patients are why we are here doing what we do. If it wasn’t for our patients, we wouldn’t have a job and what we love to do, which is taking care of them. We treat each patient as if they were our family member and give them the care that we would like to receive.

HCB News: What are some of the most common mistakes providers make concerning their approach to patient experience?

CP: Some providers do not spend the time needed to explain and go over things with the patient, (this is where our team has made great strides to inform our patients of what to expect). Also, some providers do not think that the patient understands them, so it doesn’t matter.

We often forget that even though we are in a healthcare setting, we are caring for people who are not healthcare providers. Our patients may or may not have received high school diplomas or post-secondary degrees. Even if they did, the anxiety that can come with a radiology procedure might throw all education out the window. Taking the time to explain step by step what will happen, without the use of medical jargon and doing so in plain “living room” language, is a must.

MJ: The most common mistake providers make to patient experience is that they think it is about the money you spend to create experience. The facility rivaling the most immaculate hotel or spa counts for nothing if you don’t have the right teammates, with the right culture, and the right accountability in place.

HCB News: To what extent are matters of patient experience specific to a given facility, as opposed to universal rules or philosophies?

CP: Our facility makes patient experience a top priority. We have a great senior leadership team that supports and encourages teammates to help make a patient’s experience the best it can be. The culture at our facility is very different than most hospitals. The culture at Lincoln is to be friendly, courteous and helpful.

We also understand that being a smaller hospital, we have the unique privilege of taking care of our friends, family and neighbors and we take pride in that. Our health system is focused on patient experience and we are seeing improvements in all areas. As our mission statement says, we are here to improve health, elevate hope and advance healing for all.

MJ: My personal viewpoint is that patient experience is more about the actions of those who are taking care of the patient than about the facility design, budgets, or location. The facility specific aspect is culture. Culture is set from the top down. We want to improve health, elevate hope and advance healing -- for all. This vision and mission are bold statements about who we are as an organization. As you can see, it doesn’t apply to only one facility but from the east to the west of the enterprise, we embrace the philosophy of patient first-always and it is our culture.

HCB News: How does a stronger patient experience impact other areas of radiology workflow?

MJ: Part of making the patient experience the best is that we are constantly assessing every process. Everything we do ties back to the patient experience. We utilize lean tools to improve process, workflow, and KPI's on a daily basis. The patient experience drives our yearly strategic planning just as much as financial indicators do. From this aspect, patient experience impacts every other workflow, process, and aspect of what we do, how we do it and most importantly why we do it.

CP: A strong patient experience in radiology is shown throughout the hospital setting and especially from our ED patients. It is not uncommon for radiology teammates to be mentioned by name in our emergency department patient survey comment sections.

When a radiology teammate is transporting a patient from the telemetry unit to our department, we want to ensure the patients’ needs are being met even while in transport. If this means a warm blanket or two, or friendly conversation down a long hallway, then that’s what our teammates do to meet or exceed that need.

HCB News: For providers who wish to take their patient experience to the next level, what are some recommendations to get them started on that journey?

MJ: The first thing for any provider that would like to take patient experience to the next level to do is to take a look in the mirror. Evaluate what you are setting as the example and ultimately the culture. Take an honest look at what you spend your time on daily. If you haven’t met about, talked about, planned around the patient experience in the past week, you do not have a culture centered around the very core of your business.

Next, make a change. Ask your team and your patients what you need to change, and then do it. If you want different results, do something different. Scores and culture might not change with the first modification of process, but over time, with each adjustment there will be a transformation. Not every idea will be a success, but every idea will teach you something.

Patient experience is undeniably a marathon and not a sprint. We are over 10 years into our journey and still have times where we struggle. There are times where we have to help teammates get back on the bus when they lose their connection to why they come to work every day. I would be misleading everyone if I didn’t say that sometimes my teammates help me get back on the bus sometimes. The one thing that never fails is that as a team we provide uncompromising patient experience and clinical care.

CP: Although providers are extremely busy, I believe taking a moment to sit at the level of the patient is a good way to start bringing their experience to the next level. By doing this, they are able to connect on a personal level even if for just a minute. This inevitably improves the patient’s perception. Just feeling that physicians took the time to really hear their concerns makes for an overall better experience.