Patient Experience: Touching the Heart of Medicine

Kim Radel, MHA, Director, Care Copilot Institute, Allina Health
Kathy Krypel, LICSW, PMP, Senior Master Advisor, Aspen Advisors

True patient engagement involves so much more than technology and it starts with patient experience. It is the relationship between patient and all levels of care providers that profoundly influences a patient’s willingness to engage. As a patient, I have to feel that you care about me, you KNOW me, you are MY doctor, before I’m going to engage in your activities, incentives, or electronic portal. Non-medical factors are a large determinate of medical outcomes. In short, relationships affect healing. These relationships are a non-clinical piece to the healing puzzle. They are the heart of medicine. This session will discuss how patient experience and patient engagement is moving beyond technology and being honored and implemented at healthcare systems utilizing case studies from Allina Health, a not-for-profit healthcare system serving Minnesota and western Wisconsin, with 12 hospitals and more than 90 clinics.