Hospitalists Play Vital Role in Patients’ View of Hospital Stay

The Hospitalist. 2015 September;2015(09):

September 9, 2015 | The Hospitalist

Another limitation, Dr. Sharp says, is that you can’t specifically script encounters to “teach to the test,” by using verbiage with the patient that is verbatim from the satisfaction survey questions.

“Nor can we directly control the temperature in patients’ rooms or the quality of their food,” he says. “We also do not have direct control over a negative experience in the emergency department before patients are referred to us, and many surveys show that it is very difficult to overcome a bad experience.”

Tools at Your Fingertips

As a result of the growing emphasis on patient-centered care, SHM created a Patient Experience Committee this year. SHM defines patient experience as “everything we say and do that affects our patients’ thoughts, feelings, and well-being.” The committee is looking at the issues at hand and defining the patient experience and what makes it good.

“We are looking at success stories, as well as not so successful stories, from some of our members to identify what seems to work and what doesn’t work,” says Dr. Sharp, a member of the committee. “By identifying best practices, we can then share this knowledge with the rest of the society, along with methods to implement these practices. We can centralize the gathered knowledge and data and then analyze and make it available to SHM members for their implementation and use.”

The hospitalist plays a key role in the patient experience. Now, more than ever, it’s important to do what you can to make it positive. Consider initiatives you might want to participate in—and perhaps even start your own.

Karen Appold is a medical writer in Pennsylvania.

10 Ways to Improve a Patient’s Experience Now

Sometimes it’s the little things that can have a big impact. You can improve your patients’ hospital experiences by doing just one of the following action items offered by Trina E. Dorrah, MD, MPH, hospitalist and physician director for quality improvement at Baylor Scott & White Health in Round Rock, Texas; Larry Sharp, MD, SFHM, system medical director for Cogent Healthcare at UF Health in Jacksonville, Fla.; and Adrienne Boissy, MD, MA, chief patient experience officer at the Cleveland Clinic.

1 Introduce yourself and your team to everyone in the room, and ask the patient to introduce any visitors.

2 Sit down during every patient visit. This makes a big difference in terms of how a patient will perceive your willingness to be there and the amount of time you actually spend with him or her.

3 Thank the patient for the opportunity to help care for him or her that day.

4 Be apologetic by saying something like, “I’m sorry to be meeting you like this” or “I’m sorry you are here.” No patient wants to be seeing you in the hospital.

5 Let the patient know that you care about and will take great care of him or her. It’s easy to forget to say what you’re really thinking.

6 Learn something about your patient that helps you appreciate him or her as a person. Say something like, “Tell me about yourself outside of diabetes.”

7 If you are in charge, say something like, “I am in charge of your care while you are here. You will see lots of other people, but until you hear it from me, it may not be true.”

8 Employ the teach-back method, in which you explain important information to the patient, then ask the patient to state it back in his or her own words. This will give you the opportunity to hear it as the patient understands it and to listen for any inaccuracies. Then correct anything

that was unclear and ask the patient to state his or her understanding.

9 Find a way to touch a patient’s shoulder, hand, or leg when appropriate. If you’re at a loss for words, this can go a long way in making someone feel more human.

10 Make sure you have answered everyone’s questions before leaving the room.