In an effort to improve patients' experiences, trust in care teams, and advocacy of the clinic, Practice Supervisor, Heather Selley, and Senior Practice Manager, Adam Tashman, started with a plan. They prepared "why" statements before meeting with team members to help caregivers remember our purpose in delivering great service to people, get excited about more human-centered interactions with our patients, and to clearly understand why patient experience is so important to health. Next, they partnered to emphasize and repeat their clinic's patient experience and LTR goal and key-driver plan with every opportunity.
"Because repetition is so helpful, we found success in focusing on the goal," says Tashman. "We studied our key drivers and developed a plan to address our clinic's three key drivers."
Key Drivers:
- Staff worked together to care for you
- Care provider's concern for questions or worries
- Care provider's efforts to include in decisions
Their plan includes medical assistants along with physicians and APPs using warm handoffs to ensure patients feel welcome, have their needs anticipated, and understand that the team works together to provide the best care possible. In addition, team members are using Give Them Five customer service training to interact with patients by using behaviors that healthcare consumers expect. This training emphasizes five essential soft skills: time, compassion, communication, accountability, and "wow our patients." The training also includes an informal self-audit of these skills. Lastly, the plan also strives to have physicians and APPs routinely asking, "Did I answer all of your questions?" to ensure patients' questions are answered and included in their care plans.
Following these steps to improve patient experience has resulted in an LTR percentile rank improvement of 7 percent in 2022, as measured by Press Ganey. Tashman worked in the hospitality industry in Park City before coming to Intermountain five years ago.
"I found that our caregivers are truly excellent at providing healthcare, but there is a lack of tools and customer service training," says Tashman. "So I developed the Give Them Five training and I asked caregivers to conduct a simple customer service audit or survey of their clinic—similar to a secret shopper—before they come to the training."
Tashman explains that after two weeks following training, clinics can perform the informal audit again to assess improvement.
"It means a lot," says Tashman. "Living in a small community like Cache Valley, these patients are our families, friends, and neighbors. We treat them as we would like to be treated. Our patients are now coming with ideas in their head and often they just want their voice to be heard. It's more than a care plan."