One year ago last week, I came home from 14 days in the hospital and one of the most life-changing moments of my life. Thoracic surgery is not for the faint of heart and as I continue my rehab 52 weeks later, it has been an eye opening return to the healthcare space.
The experience of doctors, nurses, and caregivers drives the experience of those receiving care.
Compassionate, patient-centric care is informed by empathy and communication to drive superior outcomes.
The basics of hospitality are foundational to creating a healing environment, regardless of whether you prefer the term patient, consumer, customer, or guest.
Prior to the pandemic, I spent time every month in hospitals, working with caregivers and support staff to bring a new perspective to the patient experience. It was a large part of my work and that meant rounding with both patients and employees to understand the needs of the patients and the realities of the care being delivered.
Fast forward 3 years and I was lying on a gurney heading into a 5 hour surgery that left me changed forever. I had never heard of an empyema, but thoracic surgery to correct the ailment left me with three chest tubes, a foot long incision, and more questions than answers. I woke up alone, in pain, and confused.
Then I felt a hand on my shoulder and heard a kind voice say "You're okay. Everything is fine. You did great."
That is when it hit me that compassion and patience are the most important tools in healthcare. That may sound like bumper sticker thinking but I assure you that it is true. Don't get me wrong, pain killers, antibiotics, and oxygen monitors are important too, but it takes a full toolbox to heal people.
This is ultimately a balance between what patients want and what they need - and creating environments where they comply with what is needed and stick to their plan for desired, successful outcomes. Nothing else much matters if you can't improve the life of patients - even those who may be very ill - to improve their outcomes around wellness, quality of life, or survival.
For example, I can share that I was concerned about many of these during my time in the hospital. My healthcare providers had to balance pain management with long term impact, surgery upside against risk, and pushing me to get up and walking mere hours after surgery vs my cranky disposition and desire to move as little as possible.
As our country continues to become a bit grayer each year, ensuring that we evolve our healthcare practices and push for more compassionate care is crucial.
What follows is a blend of science and hospitality, experience and research. After interviewing dozens of patients, caregivers, and support staff during my time in the healthcare system, I applied my hospitality lens to create 6 ways to redefine the healthcare experience.
EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE I am leading off with the idea of employee experience because that is the true driver of everything that follows. The idea of leaders creating environments where team members are confident, competent, and appreciated translates neatly into the healthcare environment. This is not a new idea, but one that requires constant tending to remain relevant. Maintaining a quality experience for the doctors, nurses, and support staff is crucial to creating an environment of open communication and collaboration. The idea of rounding on employees and patients is a cornerstone of great healthcare strategy and should be kept top of mind. While those regular touchpoints with the team can be time consuming, they pay dividends in all areas of the team and the patient experience. |
INFORMATION TRANSPARENCY IS VITAL One of the most frustrating things I experienced within the healthcare system was the lack of information. It is nerve-wracking to wait for the results of a test or to get your surgery date or to understand what is happening next. People want information and don't like feeling uninformed. They want to understand how long they will be waiting, what next steps are, and the details around their care. They also want explanations that make sense to them and not to feel rushed when discussing their care. This is an important part of building trust in healthcare and without it, overall outcomes can suffer. There is nothing more foundational than trust between healthcare provider and patient - and it fosters a culture of continuous improvement and accountability. It is also crucial to manage expectations so that patients know what to expect throughout the experience. Along with understanding times and durations, they also want to understand the context of information and what it means to them and what they should do about it. This can help patients feel as though they are a part of a larger, supportive community that has their best interests at heart. It also creates an empowered consumer who will own their care. |
LEAD WITH DIGNITY AND RESPECT After two days in the hospital I had lost sight of my previous standards of privacy and dignity. The gowns that hospitals ask patients to wear - while understandable and efficient - are uncomfortable and undignified. I found particular appreciation to those who offered me a blanket when I was been wheeled around the hospital or who kept their voice down when discussing my personal matters (or better yet, closed the hospital room door). This can come to life in many different ways, but ask yourself along the way: - Does every patient really need to wear such short gowns open in the back? - Should I close the door for this conversation in a patient's room so those in the hallway cannot hear? - How can I protect this person's dignity while also protecting their wellbeing? - How can I always remember that this is a person in front of me, not an illness or an insurance card? There is still much work to be done in even the finest healthcare establishments to ensure that we keep dignity in mind and inform our decisions with empathy. |
IT TAKES THE ENTIRE TEAM TO DELIVER CARE It is easy to zero in on doctors and nurses as the heroes of healthcare, and there is no lack of that perception in the marketplace. But as I look back on my time in the hospital, some of my most meaningful interactions happened with the transport team who pushed me around on a gurney, the technicians who came in to give me breathing treatments, and the dining team who delivered by meals. Now the deft hand of my surgeons and the removal of my chest tubes by the nurses were linchpin moments executed with precision - and I still marvel at their work. But I also appreciated the dining ambassador who delivered my tray with a smile and chatted with me. Especially after 10 or 11 days in the hospital when my spirits were dimming and I was bordering on stir crazy. I was also impressed with the upbeat attitude of the Environmental Services (EVS) workers who kept the entire facility clean and stocked throughout the day. You couple that with the myriad of technicians and specialists who stopped by throughout my stay, and it was a well orchestrated team caring for me. One challenge here for the healthcare community is information sharing and working to minimize the number of times patients must repeat the same information, reducing friction in the space. There are some areas where it is an important step in protecting privacy and safety, but others where it is redundant nonsense. For example, repeating your birthday to verify identity is a safety measure, but filling out the same form repeatedly is just bad process. |
THERE IS ROOM FOR HOSPITALITY The patient experience encompasses everything that touches them while in the healthcare system - and that goes beyond the clinical experiences. That includes cleanliness, food, and yes, hospitality. Ultimately there are times where hospitality is less important than safety and urgency. Also caregivers are faced with patients seeking pain killers, families who mistake Web MD for a medical degree, and high running emotions that sometimes carry people in a less than respectful direction. In fact, I found myself getting a bit sassy with the surgery team when my procedure was pushed back a day and then canceled to the next. All that said, there is a particular need for steps of service, shared commitments + values, customer journey, and service recovery in the healthcare space. When you think about the need for foundational aspects of service such as greeting, information sharing, anticipating needs, empathy, and ensuring a close to each interaction, it is crucial that a hospitality approach is taken. That also means creating standard frameworks that can be trained, reinforced, measured, and evaluated. Studer, for example, has used AIDET for years and I teach the CARES model within my client base. These learning approaches are crucial to ensuring the basics of care are in hand while maintaining room for the team's unique personality to shine though. |
PERSONALIZED HOLISTIC APPROACH Patients feel out of control when it comes to healthcare. It is complicated and scary - and unlike most service interactions, it can literally be life or death with regard to outcomes. This is why caregivers must consider how they treat the entire patient (and their families). I can remember moving between scared, angry, anxious, and optimistic across my journey in the healthcare space - and that was within the timeframe of an hour. Healthcare professionals must understand how emotions, mental state, and physicality play together to create the outcomes for their patients. Patients understand that they are not in a hotel, but they want a certain amount of execution when it comes to room service food delivery and the quality of their bed and sleep. They understand they are not at a restaurant but want the public cafe and the patient meals to taste good and be delivered with some amount of hospitality. This means bringing a certain amount of empathy to the party and working to understand what patients need in the moment. This also means knowing when someone needs a few extra minutes of attention or explanation in the moment to feel comfortable with the situation. |
Although I looked at these through the lens of hospitality, it also represents the reality of my experiences in the healthcare system and where there is opportunity for improvement. It is easy to read though these and lament that they are fundamental at their core or even to say "well that won't work in a healthcare environment."
I agree with 50% of that assertion. These foundational pieces of Customer Experience (CX), Patient Experience (PX), and Hospitality (H) are crucial to success because everything ladders up from them. As for their applicability, the only thing you need to really consider is that these will all contribute to the emotional state of your patients and guests, and thus drive compliance with follow up. And that is the key to driving positive outcomes.
Anecdotally I owe my speedy recovery to my compliance with the orders, follow up, and rehab following my surgery.
Did I want to get out of bed mere hours after surgery and sit up? No.
Did I want to do laps around the hospital floor that same day and hourly afterwards? That was a hard no.
Did I want to eat anything when I got home? Nope.
Did I want to go to dozens of follow up appointments? Sure didn't.
But I did. I did it all and I did it ahead of schedule because my healthcare team gave me detailed instruction and the "why" behind the activities they assigned me.
I believe their care and the corresponding follow up is why I was back to work ahead of schedule and back on the road speaking and training teams within 60 days of my surgery (the very minimum you can fly after lung surgery). I am grateful to them everyday.
That is all by way of saying that when you keep patients (and their families) at the heart of everything you do, the most amazing outcomes are possible.
Tony Johnson
* Written by a real human, not A.I.
Tony is an award winning speaker and author on the topics of sales growth, customer experience, and leadership. Tony speaks to thousands annually and has been featured on ABC News and Fox News. He is available for business planning, motivational keynotes, leadership workshops, and employee service skills training.
Tony is the founder of Ignite Your Service and the Chief Experience Officer for 4xi Global Consulting.
Tony is available to help with your Customer Experience and Employee Engagement Strategies, inspirational keynote talks, team training and development, and executive leadership coaching.
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