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The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality makes an important distinction: that patient experience is not the same as patient satisfaction (although the concepts are related).

Patient satisfaction focuses on a person’s expectations and to what degree they were met. So, two different people could receive the same care but, because of their differing expectations, can have different levels of satisfaction.

Patient experience, meanwhile, focuses on the interactions they have with the healthcare system: doctors, nurses, and more. These range from the patient’s ability to seamlessly get timely appointments, information, and more. In other words, improving the patient experience is in your control while patient satisfaction is connected to the experience but is filtered through each individual patient’s perspective.

When evaluating your patient experience delivery at your facilities, focus on how well the patients receive “care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs and values.”

Now, here are six reasons why your facility should focus on patient experience.

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#1 The Right Thing to Do
Short and simple! Providing a quality patient experience is the right thing to do.

#2 Better Health Outcomes
Quality experiences can lead to more positive health reports. One study focuses on people hospitalized because of a heart attack—and a year after discharge, they have, on average, more positive outcomes if their patient experience was positive.

#3 Patient Loyalty
Just like with any other type of relationship, patients are more loyal to their healthcare providers when they receive a good experience. One study shows that patients who received the lowest quality of experience were three times more likely to switch physicians than those who received the highest quality.

#4 Staff Satisfaction / Lower Turnover
Healthcare staff don’t want to provide a poor quality experience for their patients. When healthcare facilities provide their clinicians and other employees with what they need to provide better care, they’re more likely to stay. One hospital focusing on improving work-related systems and processes reduced employee turnover by 4.7 percent.

# 5 Reduced Malpractice Rates
One study shows that, as the quality of patient experience drops, the chances of being named in a malpractice suit increases. When using patient-reported scores to calibrate this, each one-point drop in scoring increases the risk of a lawsuit by 21.7 percent. Looked at from the opposite perspective, the risk of a lawsuit drops by that amount each time that satisfaction with the patient experience increases.

#6 People Value Engaging Patient Education
According to a National Research Corporation (NRC) survey, cited by the National Library of Medicine, patients value physicians who explain things well. In fact, that’s the most important criterion for choosing a doctor. Poor levels of patient education can lead to unrealistic expectations—and then dissatisfaction when expectations aren’t met.

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Lack of Physician Time
In a national survey by The Physicians Foundation, only 11 percent of patients felt as though they had enough time in a physician-patient appointment to receive the highest standards of care. (Fourteen percent of physicians said the same thing.) So, on the one hand, 90 percent of patients believe that a solid relationship between a patient and physician is the “most essential element of a quality health care system,” but time is clearly being perceived as a significant barrier.
The solution: interactive patient education.

Components of Interactive Patient Education
Interactive patient education makes educational resources available to patients at their bedsides. This information can be delivered in the hospital as well as in a discharged patient’s home through interactive technologies, and educational materials are targeted to the patient’s specific conditions and treatments.

Interactive patient education is, as the name implies, interactive—and it’s also patient-centric, providing numerous benefits.

Benefits of Patient-Centric Care
Healthcare services that put the patient in the center—such as what can happen when quality patient education technology is used—lead to better informed patients. This, in turn, allows them to better understand their health conditions and treatment options, leading to better decision making by the patient.

Benefits continue from there. People who receive interactive patient education are more likely to consistently follow their treatment plans while being less likely to stop taking their prescriptions. Treatment compliance naturally creates efficiencies that can lower costs for patients and healthcare facilities while reducing provider liability. This can also boost patient satisfaction.

What’s most important to more fully realize these benefits: high quality patient education software.

Journey PX: Patient Education Software
Journey PX solves the problems associated with time-pressured physicians, allowing healthcare professionals to provide premium care by leveraging the power of quality patient education technology. When interactive patient education is readily available, patients can turn to this instead of searching for it on Google. Reliability of information found by surfing the web is uncertain, if not worse than uncertain—with inaccurate information having the potential to harm the person’s treatment.

Interactive patient information found in the Journey PX data, though, is continually updated so it always contains the latest in medical developments. So, when your healthcare facilities use this technology, you can share information with your patients with confidence.

Additional benefits of Journey PX include how it:

Can help healthcare facilities to overcome language barriers: When a patient is unable to understand instructions because they aren’t presented in a language they’re comfortable with, providing quality care can be extremely challenging. To address that issue, Journey PX is available in numerous languages with closed captioning available for the hearing impaired.
provides seamless access to relevant information: Journey PX is easy and convenient to use. Our cloud-based technology makes the system accessible through any mobile device, just about anywhere around the globe. It’s easy to implement in healthcare facilities, and intuitive for patients to use.
Fulfills all of your patient education technology needs
This is a turnkey solution that provides the entire range of interactive patient education needs.

To discuss how Journey PX can help your healthcare facilities to provide world-class education to your patients, please contact us online or call (800) 359-6741.

nurses, technology, healthcare

The issues facing nurses today are something very dear to the heart of Linda Robinson, the VP of Clinical Excellence at MDM Healthcare. Robinson reflected on the concepts of resilience and well-being as they relate to the current struggle hospital care teams are facing. “I have been a nurse for 35 years, and I was at the bedside for at least 28 of those years. I used to think that when the Emergency Department was falling apart and they needed help and they would say, Hey Linda, can you pick up four hours? We're getting killed here, We're diverting to another hospital. I'd say to myself, I can do this, another four hours can’t hurt me,” she said. “Overworked nurses often don't realize that they are putting their own mental health and health at risk,” she continued.

Nursing leaders continue to discuss the concepts of resilience and well-being as they relate to their profession. “Resilience meant to me that I had strength, perseverance, and resolve. It was a never give up kind of word,” stated Robinson, and she emphasized that there has been a shift in the healthcare community towards focusing on the well-being of nurses. Robinson explains the impact of the pandemic in 2020 resulted in the current situation many hospitals are facing today, nursing burnout which has led to a nursing shortage. “The inexperienced nurses at the beginning of COVID hit the ground running, and they're probably still running, wondering, is this really what I signed up for? If you look at the definition of resilience, It's the capacity of a person to maintain their core purpose and integrity in the face of dramatically changed circumstances. The question is how do we move that inexperienced workforce forward? We can not leave nurses behind on an island or hung out dry. They can't be in that room with a full code all alone. They need a team behind them. That team is the hospital, nursing leadership, and management,” she said. The focus now has to be on nurses' well-being.

Robinson believes that the way to positively impact nurses is through leadership, mentorship, and readily available, effective resources. Technology is one resource that can dramatically improve working conditions for nurses, helping to optimize their time and enhance their ability to assist patients and work with their team. “At MDM, our experienced team is dedicated to healthcare innovation and transformation. The power of technology in healthcare settings is most impactful when incorporating clinical nurses, and bedside nurses. We know that nurses are the cornerstone of the healthcare system, and right now they're stretched thin during this unprecedented time, and we want to help support them,” Robinson said.

Journey PX, our patient engagement solution has the capability to support care delivery by leaning down clinical workflows, automating the patient education process, offloading non-clinical tasks, and offering the capability of video connect into the patient room. This reduces exposure while still maintaining that face-to-face personal contact sentiment. We can help save nurses and the healthcare team valuable time and steps during this critical period.

Copy of Untitled (Blog Graphic) (Website)

Sentinel Event Alert published recently by the Joint Commission outlined
Five Key Ways to Support Health Care Workers

1. Foster open and transparent communication to build trust, reduce fears, build morale, and sustain an effective workforce.
2. Remove barriers to health care workers seeking mental health services and develop systems that support institutional, as well as individual resilience.
3. Protect workers’ safety using the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH) Hierarchy of Controls framework.
4. Develop a flexible workforce; evaluate the work being performed and determine if it can be performed remotely.
5. Provide clinicians and others with opportunities to collaborate, lead and innovate.

Listen to the full interview on the PX Space podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music. 

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We recently sat down with the VP of Clinical Excellence at MDM Healthcare, Linda Robinson to discuss how patient engagement drives hospital quality and safety initiatives. Robinson, an award-winning nurse, has worked in the patient care industry for 35 years. She has done extensive research in the area throughout her career. “When we have patients become active participants in their care, that is when they start to understand what they need to do to get themselves better. I would say to patients, healthcare doesn't just happen to you, it’s happening with you,” she said. Robinson illustrated the idea that humanizing care means empowering, educating, and engaging patients in their care to support the patient experience. “That's bringing humanity into the care at the bedside, and that really helps us drive quality and safety. All those things are fundamentally important for patients today,” she said.

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One tool healthcare providers have today to help drive better outcomes and elevate the patient experience is technology. Technology plays a role in helping to empower patients and develop that patient experience, especially as it relates to quality and safety. “The healthcare industry should be open to embracing technology. The rest of the world outside the hospital walls is really embracing technology and hospitals are just now starting to do that,” Robinson said. “What I think is really exciting is that technology has the ability to be in that patient room. Even when the healthcare staff or the clinicians are not. So, it can help personalize, humanize, and demystify the healthcare experience because that information is in the room in real-time and at their fingertips,” she continued. She further explained that while technology is an amazing tool for healthcare providers when it comes to dealing with patients, it should be intuitive. “Technology should be very simple to use. A patient should not have to learn how to use something in the room when they’re sick and frankly overwhelmed. It should be as easy as working a television remote,” she said.

One type of technology that is changing the landscape for acute care facilities is digital whiteboards. A digital whiteboard, unlike the grease board on the wall, is kept up in real-time, and it's there for the patient to view throughout the day. Digital whiteboards connect with hospitals' EMRs and are updated in real-time which provides vital information to hospital care teams, patients, and their families. Robinson explained how digital whiteboards are used to enhance the patient experience and drive better quality and safety outcomes. “When patients go to the hospital so many times, they don't know what's going happen. They think: I don't know, nobody tells me anything. Technology can help us hard-wire bedside shift reports. Every patient should get a bedside shift report. They are one of the biggest drivers of quality and safety. Patients can be assured that the technology the digital whiteboard displays in their room is going to be up to date. They can see tests that are ordered, activities that they need to do, and the goals that have been set for them,” she said. Digital whiteboards also provide patients and their families with key information and answers to any questions they may have. This information at their bedside comforts them, keeps them informed, and really transforms their care. It’s a win-win situation for both patients and hospital care teams as Robinson explains, “These technology tools help drive quality and safety from a patient's perspective, but then also from a healthcare provider's perspective.”

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Technology is now allowing patients to become more empowered by getting educated on their conditions. “Delivering information in a timely manner in digestible bites for the patient at home, and at the bedside really makes a difference in their care. It not only drives health literacy, but it increases outcomes. It also keeps hospital costs down,” said Robinson. Robinson described how the technology works. “Let's say a patient comes into the hospital and, upon admission, there is a screening for a fall. So, a fall score is done, and the patient has a high fall risk. As soon as that is documented within the EMR, a video about preventing falls in the hospital can automatically be sent to that patient. That patient then gets a prompt on their television set that says: “you've been ordered a video about your health. Would you like to watch it now, or would you like us to remind you later?” The patient can watch it now by pushing 1 on their pillow speaker or remote, whatever is in the room for them to use for their television or they can say, remind me later. If they say, remind me later, it can be customized to remind that patient,” she explained. One of the biggest benefits of the technology used in Journey PX solutions is that they provide care facilities with a better means of exchanging vital information in real-time. “It's closing gaps in communication, and we know that when we close gaps in communication, it improves clinical outcomes. It keeps them safe, and it drives quality within their care,” said Robinson. “You're giving them the information they need and that's how trust is built, and that's what has them coming back to your organization as well,” she continued.

Listen to the full interview on the PX Space podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music. 

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Assessing the Situation

The American College of Nursing reported a concerning problem for the healthcare industry, a nursing shortage which began prior to 2017 but was further impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Linda Robinson, the Vice President of Clinical Excellence at MDM Healthcare, has been a nurse for over 34 years and went back to work as an experienced nurse during the pandemic. She states,

“Truly the profession I have worked in for 34 years is forever changed. During the pandemic, healthcare workers were dubbed by the media and the community as superheroes. However, the reality was much harsher. The COVID-19 pandemic left healthcare workers, especially nurses, feeling bruised and battered. I saw it many times when I was working during the pandemic, I heard it, I felt it, and I can tell you many of them did not feel like heroes. They felt like they were coming to work and they were fighting an unwinnable battle and they couldn’t escape it.”

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Recent research from a national survey of nurses conducted by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) reveals that during the past few years, “the health of nurse work environments has declined dramatically.” The report indicates that among many key factors, nurses have perceived a decline in communication and collaboration in their work environment and appropriate staffing (the right number of RN staff with the right knowledge and skills) to be major concerns. It states, “The impact of this further decline in the appropriate staffing of nurses is likely to have long-standing effects on nurse well-being and patient safety if not corrected expeditiously.” The study also reveals a dramatic decline in how nurses rated the quality of care in their organizations and work units.

The Experience Complexity Gap

Robinson states that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated an already difficult problem. “Nurses started leaving the workforce in very large numbers. We had experienced nurses leaving due to burnout. New nurses were entering the workforce, and they were unprepared for the intensity of the pandemic. The mentors were not available, and new nurses didn’t have the advantage of the new hire training and preceptorship that they normally would have received. Many times, these new nurses were put right on COVID floors to take care of COVID patients, and they were just simply unprepared for that. Because of all this, we saw a worsening in the experience complexity gap, which is really the heart of the nursing shortage.”

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Robinson referenced solutions outlined in the framework to optimize healthcare performance, which was developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in 2007 and recently revised. Robinson explains what used to be the triple aim to improve healthcare system performance, a framework built around reducing costs, improving population health, and patient experience, has now evolved to the quadruple aim, to include healthcare team well-being into the framework.

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Bold Changes

The new healthcare landscape with all of its challenges is transforming rapidly in healthcare,” said Robinson. She referenced a study recently published by McKinsey & Company on retaining the healthcare workforce. It states, “Organizations may consider how to leverage digital tools and adapt care models. Although the experiences of 2020-2021 have impacted every profession, few have been more impacted than the nursing workforce. The trauma and moral distress of the past years have exacerbated work­ force vulnerabilities, but also provide a unique opportunity to accelerate changes (for example, technology-enabled care models) and make bold investments in what the future of nursing could look like.”

Robinson suggests the future of nursing rests on transforming care delivery models and leaning down clinical workflows for healthcare teams, which can be accomplished today using new technology.

 

“Largely nurses were underappreciated, and I think it’s come to the forefront from the pandemic. We really must take care of our nurses and ask ourselves: how are we helping them with work-life balance? Also, how are we helping them with workflow optimization? That’s something that we work very diligently on at [MDM Healthcare’s cloud-based patient experience platform] Journey PX because we really want to be that partner that helps lean down nursing, clinician, and provider workflows. Our goal is to help them do what they do better and give them the ability to have a presence in the room, even if they’re not actually in the room.”

 

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The McKinsey study suggests these changes would be embraced by nurses and patients alike. It states, “As hospital systems contemplate new ways to embed virtual elements into nursing workflows to improve safety, quality, and efficiency, they are likely to find an enthusiastic workforce. Roughly two-thirds of frontline nurses are interested in providing virtual care in the future.”

The study also suggests that the impact of technology has the capacity to help change care delivery models will result in reducing the need for nurses. It states,

 

“for every 1 percent expansion of capacity, created through changes in care delivery models, technology-enabled productivity tools, or alternative sites of care settings for patients, the number of nurses needed would decrease by about 25,000.

 

As the healthcare industry recognizes the need for change and embraces technology solutions, there is some renewed hope that hospital care teams can recover from the challenges they have faced in recent years.

“Nursing truly is a calling. They’re at our sides at birth throughout our lives, during illness, hardship, and even death. We really have to hold onto our nurses and take care of them,” says Robinson.

Listen to the full interview on the PX Space podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music. 

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