Building a Patient - Centered Culture

Too often, an organization that sets out to create a patient-focused culture misses the mark simply because Leadership doesn't properly define what this culture really is.

Providing patient-centered care starts by asking the patient what they really want out of their care experience. Being willing to ask those questions also indicates a willingness on the part of the organization to change the way that it views care.

Creating this kind of culture is about making the patient an active participant in the care provided to them, and encouraging them to be willing participants in that new way of thinking. 

Select the Right Tools

There are many ways to get patients to tell us what they want from their care experience. Certainly, we're all familiar with patient surveys; they provide the potential to glean a tremendous amount of information. It's important to take the time to review the feedback, digest the comments and truly understand the indicators that are most indicative of overall satisfaction. Your survey tool provider can help you to obtain this information. 

Other effective methods include focus groups, especially around a particular type of service, and telephone surveys. Some hospitals have gone so far as to create patient advisory councils or to add patients to their clinical service line councils. These patients are often used to provide feedback on their own experiences with care and to help the hospital to innovate care delivery based upon what they feel they need in that experience. 

Look to Best Practices

An excellent example of the cultural move to patient-centered care is found in what Bronson Methodist Hospital* has done. As a Malcolm Baldridge Award winner, and well known for their overall level of quality of care, the organization decided to push the envelope by redefining the care experience. As they articulated, creating a culture of patient-centered care is about recognizing that care is not done “to” a patient, but “with” that patient.

Make Your To-Do List

If you're considering a move to more of a patient-focused culture, consider these must-haves:

1. Leadership must be supportive of this shift and must articulate what patient-centered care means and help the care team (physicians included) understand why such a change is necessary.
2. The medical staff must be involved in the cultural shift and must understand and be comfortable with the patient and family being more involved in the care process. This shift will feel a bit uncomfortable as physicians become accustomed to fielding more questions and involving families more.
3. Staff must understand why the move to patient-centered care is important to the organization. If you're already doing well with your quality indicators, they may feel more inclined to keep things the way they are and not see the need to change.  Make sure staff is involved in hearing what families and patients really want.
4. Put in place mechanisms to hear the voice of the patient, and build in accountabilities that reinforce the importance of hearing those voices. 

Start Making Progress Today

While you may not be in a position to start an organization-wide, patient-centered care model, there are some smaller steps you can take today:

1. Add a question to your patient intake process. “What's the goal for your visit?” This query can help you learn their expectations and what you can best do to meet them.
2. Talk to your staff and have them begin to tune into the patient voice. Challenge them to see how much they can learn about their particular patients and their needs. Review that feedback at departmental meetings and see what you may need to change in your approach.
3. Periodically hold your own patient focus groups to determine how well you're doing. Maybe you need some input into a new program design. Or perhaps you're interested in exploring patient satisfiers more deeply and finding out what you can do to positively impact the patient environment.

Whatever you try, remember that this experience is more than about providing amenities. The only way to achieve long-term patient satisfaction is to shift the process for delivering care so it's more reflective of the patient's desires--and not just those of the organization.

*Case study source: Achieving a Culture of Patient- and Family-Centered Care at Bronson Methodist Hospital by Douglas McCarthy

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