Staff & Provider Engagement

Change is Good, Let Us Show You Why! Implementing Processes to Drive Patient Experience Improvement

Pam Duke, Supervisor Patient Experience and Candi Kles, CICU Unit Manager, Athens Regional Medical Center

Athens Regional Medical Center formed a committee to discuss how to improve the experience for patients having open-heart surgery. The committee had three goals:

    1. Create a standardized process for educating and communicating to patients and family
    2. Decrease the patient’s and family’s anxiety
    3. Improve the overall patient and family experience with a focus on key areas that are affected by HCAHPS scores

In this presentation, participants will hear how Athens Regional Medical Center identified a service issue; gathered the right people from both a clinical and nonclinical background to be involved in the improvement effort and how this effort resulted in achieving their three goals.