Understanding what patients find most important in their experiences in health care delivery is essential to patient retention and improved outcomes, Lukejohn W. Day, MD, explained in his presentation to the Digestive Disease Week virtual conference .

Dr Day is a professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco and the chief medical officer at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

“At its core, patient experience encompasses the range of interactions that patients have with the health care system, including doctors, nurses, and hospital staff, as well as health plans,” Dr Day said. “This also includes several aspects of health care delivery, and what patients deem most important in their care. Understanding this is a key step in understanding our patient-centered care model for our patients.”

Dr Day explained the benefits of improved patient experience, including patient retention, brand identity growth for practices, to improved job satisfaction for physicians, and reduce malpractice cases.

“Overall, there are a number of improved outcomes that can be seen in several patient domains,” Dr Day reported, such as patient behavior, clinical processes, clinical outcomes, safety, and efficiency. Further Dr Day explained, “we see reduced unnecessary health care and emergency room visits,” as a core benefit.

Dr Day went on to describe informal and formal ways to measure and capture patient experience, from word of mouth and online forums to health care providers’ websites. He also explained the various formal, and possibly more effective, ways clinicians can measure patient experiences, including consumer assessment of health care providers and systems (CAHPS) surveys with hospitals, outpatient clinics, and outpatient/ambulatory surgery centers; Press-Ganey and independent patient-experience companies; and endoscopy specific surveys. “Overall, there are some key elements to all 3 of these types of surveys. They give an overall provider rating,” Dr Day explained.

Patients undergoing endoscopy have cited the endoscopists’ personal manner, nurses’ personal manner, their perception of the endoscopist’s technical skills, their perception of pain control and pain experience during the procedure, as important to their experience. “We can use this information to develop our interventions and then include it,” Dr Day suggested.

In planning, Dr Day said, “I recommend focusing on 1 question of the survey itself, especially where there is a negative reporting,” to collect data, create a plan, and implement it into real change in the practice and improvement in the patient experience. This 4-step system was broken down to “act, plan, do, study,” and focuses on communication with patients and staff; ongoing review of survey results; incorporating findings into practice by starting small and identifying areas of poor experience; and using small internal surveys to compare with national benchmarks. 

“Some tangible proven ways to improve patients’ experience, at a global level, there are a number of dimensions that are central to patient-centered care—these are outlined in Picker’s Eight Principles of Patient-Centered Care, including patient rounding; staff coaching in communication; team huddles; rewards and recognition programs; procedures for informing patients of waits; service recovery programs; and process scripting and redesign,” Dr Day stated. He also emphasized that these 8 principles are essential in improving patient experience within the endoscopy unit.

“Ensure there is ease of access to the endoscopy unit,” Dr Day stated. He further suggested implementing tools such as “giving clear directions and instructions for patients, shortened appointment wait times, commitment to timelines, strengthened communication, improved personal manner, minimizing procedural discomfort and prompt consultation with the patient and their family after the procedure itself.”

—Angelique Platas

Reference:

Day LW. Improving patient experience and why it matters. Presented at Digestive Disease Week May 21, 2021; Virtual