52 Weeks of Overmanaging Creates Success

Karen Byrnes, MSN, RN, CPXP | Director – Patient Experience, Dignity Health – AZ East Valley
Sandy Rush, BSN, RN, MA, CHE | Sr. Director – Patient Experience, Dignity Health

With the multiple priorities of quality of care, patient safety, productivity, and staffing, patient experience focus may go by the wayside. Improving the patient experience takes initiative, dedication and time. This session will share how a 36 hospital health care system, and specifically two hospitals, maintained the focus on patient experience through weekly meetings with key departments. It will describe how departments were selected, who participated, and an agenda that helped drive intense focus and action. It will also describe the review of the patient voice beyond the survey, including through leader rounding, discharge phone calls, and journey mapping. An overview of the challenges and obstacles that were overcome in order to maintain the focus and attendance of the weekly meetings, and the successful outcomes, not only in HCAHPS scores, but more importantly to patient engagement and caregiver engagement will be discussed.