Using Life Stories to Create the Ultimate Patient Experience

Sheila Brune, MS, RN, CPHQ, Director of Service Excellence CGH Medical Center

In this session participants will learn how to use detailed stories of a patient’s life to deliver patient-centered care to the heart and soul of the PATIENT, not the room number, diagnosis or revenue source. Knowing that we are judged by the people we touch each and every day in healthcare, it is vitally important that we find new and innovative ways to touch their lives. This presentation will describe the mechanism for interviewing patients and their families for their life stories, writing the story and then using it to make connections on a new level. This successful program is being used at over 30 hospitals nationwide with tremendous success in impacting patient, family and staff satisfaction. Participants will hear touching stories of the presenters experience over the last 10 years of using these stories in direct patient care situations. You will learn how to teach storywriters to interview, build rapport, listen and learn with patients and families, and then how to produce a visually appealing and profoundly moving story. Participants will see how caregivers use the information in the story to build more dynamic and lasting connections with the people we serve. Metrics on the impact on patient satisfaction will be presented along with real life examples of the positive impact of the story on the health care encounter experience.