Sodexo Celebrates Patient Experience Week
A Human-Centered, Data-Driven Approach Moves the Needle on Patient Experience Outcomes
It starts with empathy. Improving patient experience depends upon understanding the patient’s experience. Patients will always need individualized care. But often most patients don’t want to be “a bother.” Is the meal not to their liking? Is there something else they would prefer? How else can we make their stay in the hospital conducive to recovery?
Listening to patients and their individual experiences is key. More than simply receiving their medical treatment and perhaps eating a meal while in the hospital, patients consistently report higher satisfaction – and, thus, faster recovery and improved outcomes – when staff employ purposeful rounding that informs their individualized care. With Experiencia, rounding is easy, thorough, informed by insights, and patient-centered.
Michele Trifari, Area Operations Manager for New York City Health and Hospitals (NYC H+H), says, “I want the rounding to be purposeful. I want it to be robust.”
At several hospitals within the NYCH H+H system, Michele trains employees to make sure they hit targets because she knows it works.
Patient-centered rounding with Experiencia® drove up the hospital’s Press Ganey ranking 23 points.
“We set a goal for each account (for rounding),” she says. Using Sodexo’s formula for goal setting based on total number of beds, Michele’s teams know how many rounds they need to make in a week. “I’ll say to a General Manager, ‘Everybody must do, say, 25 rounds. That’s 5 rounds a day for a week. But what really matters is more than the number, it’s about ensuring that each interaction with each patient brings a meaningful experience to that patient.’”
“It must be Empathy, Service, then Task…The follow-up round is what moves the needle from good to great: Acknowledge, apologize, make sure that everything is good for the patient.”
The success of the rounding relies on the dedication of the team. “Every Sodexo manager hits that target,” Michele says.
This purposeful rounding translates to patient-specific data that informs the rest of the care experience and helps staff predict and anticipate patient needs for the remainder of the patient’s stay, along with the rest of the patient cohort.
Within the last 12 months, NYC H+H’s Press Ganey scores for patient experience – particularly menu and food delivery experience – increased 23 points, bringing NYC H+H’s previous 49th percentile ranking to the 72nd percentile.
According to Michele, Experiencia provides staff the tools and the training they need to make an impact on patient experience that’s directly measurable. “We’ve changed their job flows,” she says. But according to her, through Experiencia, the staff are equipped and supported with personalized scripting to enhance the patient conversation. “It gives them confidence.”