2012 Benchmarking Study - Patient Experience Management in Healthcare

2012 Benchmarking Study: Patient Experience Management in Healthcare

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Introduction and Overview The patient experience encompasses much more than the time spent as a patient at your facility. It begins with awareness and information seeking and extends long after discharge and receiving the final bill. Today’s healthcare organizations understand the importance of the patient experience and its impact on business goals. From appointing a Chief Experience Officer to supporting process improvement, more and more health care leaders are implementing initiatives to focus on patient experience improvement. Three premier organizations in healthcare marketing and benchmarking research teamed up to conduct a national survey of leaders from various healthcare providers to gain insight into the best practices they employ to manage their patients’ experience and how they view this somewhat new concept. This research reveals many positive trends in experience management and identifies key priorities for further development of patient experience strategies. It sheds light on the importance of patient experience management as an organizational strategy rather than a one-‐off, isolated initiative. The purpose of this research is to identify some “best in class” practices used to achieve excellence in patient experience management. This white paper highlights the key findings from the research and webinar used to present this research with added commentaries not shared via the report.

Using These Findings for Your Organization’s Benefit Healthcare administrators and executives can use this research to not only:

• See how you measure up against other healthcare industry leaders, but also • Identify current trends in experience management, • Cite common challenges your colleagues face in this effort, • Learn about tools being used • Determine opportunities for growth and improvement in your organization’s patient

experience management endeavors.



In the subsequent pages you will learn about our methodology, the participating institutions, our findings and how you can use this to benefit your organization. However, before delving further we present to you three stages to determine in which stage your organization is along the patient experience strategy continuum. Consider one to determine where your organization currently stands.



Study Methods The 2012 Insights into the Patient Experience Survey was conducted by APQC in cooperation with Gelb Consulting Group and The Beryl Institute. In March 2012, an online survey was sent to healthcare affiliates and professional friends of The Beryl Institute and Gelb Consulting Group. Participating institutions are healthcare professionals who work in a variety of settings including academic medical centers, community hospitals, and health care systems across the nation. An analysis of 70 completed surveys is included in this report. The margin of error for this sample size of 70 is 12% at the 95% confidence interval.

We asked participating institutions how their organization perceived the importance of the patient experience from a strategic perspective, what is currently being done to manage the experience, how their organization monitors the experience and what tools do they expect to use in the future. This national survey was designed to draw out some of the “best in class” practices used to achieve excellence in patient experience.

PATIENT EXPERIENCE AND THE CONTINUUM OF CARE This study takes a deep dive into understanding how organizations approach the patient experience throughout each phase of the experience. The Beryl Institute defines the patient experience as the sum of all interactions, shaped by an organization’s culture, that influence patient perceptions across the continuum of care.

Respondents by Facility Type

Respondents by Job Function



Managing the patient experience includes interactions well before an individual becomes a patient and extends to well after they have been discharged or ended treatment. With this in mind, the study was shaped by the framework or continuum, if you will, to make a more distinct connection between our findings about patient experience management efforts and the patient experience. Awareness Access Visit Treatment Transition • Symptoms • Diagnosis • Evaluation of healthcare providers

• Information gathering

• Research

• Choosing healthcare provider

• Financial paperwork • Medical paperwork • Scheduling first visit

• Parking • Getting to the center • Checking-‐in / waiting area

• Initial treatment plan

• Additional lab and diagnostic testing

• Scheduling and intake

• Surgery • Treatment rooms • Treatment • Nursing Care

• Communication with referring physician

• Follow-‐up visits • Call-‐backs for assistance

• Support/groups / wellness services

• Advocacy

THE CURRENT APPROACH TO EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT IN HEALTHCARE: STUDY FINDINGS Strategic Imperative Taking a strategic approach to experience management can improve competitive positioning and support growth in market share and patient volume. In general, we found over 90% of participating institutions believed their organization considered patient experience to be a strategic imperative. As you can see from the patience experience and the continuum of care chart, having a strategy in place for how your organization will manage your patients’ experience is critical as the patient experience is being shaped as we speak whether your organization is making a concerted effort to manage it or not. Organization-‐wide Strategy Reflective of Brand The awareness stage is a stage in which they’ve yet to become a patient but are beginning to frame and impression and perception of your organization. Starting with the ‘awareness’ stage, having a strategy in place will help ensure that your organization is reinforcing your brand promise through the touchpoints that affect it. These touchpoints in the awareness stage take the shape of online communications that you can affect and/or control such as banner ads, Internet search results, organization web site and other electronic media. Additional touchpoints that come into play at this stage include interpersonal interactions with former or current patients and family or friends of these who through word of mouth start creating an impression or experience with your organization. Other touchpoints to keep in mind include written communications such as mailings or print ads, articles and your facilities, which consist of how they look from a distance.



Having an organization-‐wide strategy on how to manage the patient experience would force you to consider and plan on how you will affect and mold your prospective patients’ experience with your organization as early as the awareness stage. Competitive Positioning For some organizations, creating a warm environment and personalized experience can offset the “I feel like a number” perception. Only 20% of participating institutions agreed that their organization’s systems are designed to enable each person who interacts with a patient to understand his/her preferences indicating the need for a greater focus on personalized care. From a competitive perspective, hospitals and institutions that are highly ranked due to clinical excellence can turn their attention to improving patient experience to maintain advantage as competitors begin to close the gap in terms of clinical and technical competence. Differentiation with a Personalized Experience Whether a small community hospital or large urban medical center, your organization’s clinical excellence and expertise is important but is no longer as much of a differentiator as in the past. With clinical excellence a standard expectation, high ranking healthcare organizations are shifting their focus to personalization of the patient experience. Personalization does not literally mean that everyone within your organization is expected to have the one on one relationship with all patients, but instead has the systems in place to provide the feeling of a more personalized experience. As examples, some high-‐ranking healthcare organizations create a personalized environment by hiring greeters to offer patients and their caregivers, family and friends a warm smile and wayfinding assistance. Training your receptionists and nurses to review the schedule for that day and greet all patients by name further eliminates the feeling of being just another number. Differentiation with Ease of Access Leveraging technology and streamlining processes to create an easy and efficient experience is another tactic for experience management. Only 25% of participants reported their patient information systems are designed to take most of the burden from patients in getting to their appointments and for effective medical record information management Local providers are often preferred for what patients perceived to be more common services due to



the convenience offered by local hospitals. Fast and easy appointment setting and access can encourage patients to travel for care. Grow Market Share and Volume Leaders of many healthcare facilities agree that improving the patient experience supports strategies for growth in market share and increased patient volume. About 77% of participants responded that their organization believes that effective patient experience management generates additional patient revenue. Experience management may result in additional revenue through an increase in referrals from patients, caregivers and referring physicians. Providing an exceptional experience can turn satisfied patients into advocates, providing recommendations to friends and family. Experience management can be an effective form of marketing (word-‐of-‐mouth) and about 87% of participating institutions agree with this statement. Developing Enchanted: Patients & Referring Physicians Strategically managing the patient experience management enables organizations to not only make promoters of their patients, but loyal and enchanted followers. An enchanted patient contrary to a loyal and satisfied patient does not need to be prompted to recommend your organization. An enchanted patient will mention their experience and adulation of your organization anecdotally in conversation and will be sure to say ‘And if you’re ever in need of this care, then you must go to XYZ Hospital.” Thus, if you’re doing a successful job of strategically managing your patients’ experience, then be ready to handle additional volume as word of mouth travels fast. Word of mouth is hands down the most effective way of marketing your organization as we have heard time and time again in the myriad patient interviews we’ve conducted. An often neglected, but powerful ally and promoter to help in your organization’s effort to grow market share and volume are referring physicians. Referring physicians armed with the proper tools to refer and information to educate themselves and their patients about your organization can become loyal advocates. Referring physicians appreciate clear, consistent communication about their patient from the rendering physician to facilitate the continuation of care. More than 71% of participating’ organizations currently use integrated systems with other healthcare providers allowing efficient and timely communications between referring physicians and rendering physicians.



Referring physicians expect healthcare facilities to provide the same quality of care they provide their patients. Doing so can increase satisfaction, build strong relationships and lasting referral patterns. The importance of referring satisfaction is supported in this study. Almost 42% of participating institutions report that their organization monitors referring physician satisfaction annually. These loyal advocates can easily become enchanted promoters when an organization extends the personalization that we mentioned patients yearn, to the referring doctor. Leading healthcare institutions often accomplish this with personalized ‘thank you’ notes and even phone calls that not only establish professional rapport but also acknowledge the referring physician’s efforts for the added business. Another best practice is timely delivery of detailed notes/updates about the referring physicians’ patients as well as ongoing needed care or treatment upon discharge. Seemingly minor personal touches and courtesies go a long way for both patients and referring physicians. Strategic Approach While providing the ideal patient experience is integrated in the vision principles of most organizations, more and more healthcare leaders are taking a strategic approach to leveraging experience management and its ability to drive growth and create competitive advantage. MANAGING THE PATIENT EXPERIENCE As mentioned earlier, patient experience management needs to go beyond a lone departmental initiative to truly be effective and affect overall market share, positioning, and volume. Successful efforts into managing the patient experience are part of and in symphony with an organization’s overall strategy. Experience Management Today Healthcare organizations understand the importance of experience management. Nearly 72% of institutions reported that they have an executive designated as a patient experience lead and 71% report currently using patient advisory boards. Yet 54% of participants reported that their organization does not have a common definition for patient experience management. This indicates progress has been made with regards to prioritizing experience management yet there is still some ambiguity as to how to inject those priorities into operations. While it is key to have the appropriate leadership or institutional executives as proponents of patient experience management as an overall strategy for the organization, it is equally critical if not more so to ensure that buy in is attained by faculty and staff. By engaging and gaining the avid



support of faculty and staff – leadership can rest assured that their efforts toward a patient experience management strategy will be strong and, with the right programs in place, long-‐lasting. Managing Experience with Technology We found that a large majority of organizations currently utilize technology as a means to manage the patient experience. Over 84% report their organizations rely on patient electronic medical records. In addition, 68% report using real-‐time patient feedback tools. Integrated systems with other healthcare providers and service recovery systems are being used by most organizations today. These systems improve the efficiency of many activities throughout the patient experience, from making an appointment to following up with their primary care physician. The degree to which these systems are integrated and consistently applied across the experience varies. Use of technology to manage the patient experience will continue to be a trend in the future. In the next twelve months, 24% of participating institutions stated that their organization intended to use integrated systems with other healthcare providers. While 54% of participants currently use a customer relationship management system, another 24% of survey participants reported their organization has planned to use a customer relationship management system in the next twelve months. These technologies in the form of CRM systems and EMR serve to complement a patient experience management strategy not supplement it. Using technology to measure patient satisfaction in real time via a dashboard can facilitate and expedite service recovery and continuous service improvements. Using technology to track patient preferences or customize service to track and address their unique needs when visiting your institution can make for a better experience. However, institutions will need to be careful to ensure technology is only an aid and not a substitute for human touch, which will have a strong positive impact on the overall experience



Performance Improvement Reducing wait times, cleanliness and other service related issues can have a big impact on the patient experience. Performance improvement initiatives were reported as common tactics to manage and improve the patient experience. Over 92% of participating institutions agreed with the statement that their organization has work teams focused on service improvement. We found 34% of participants reported that their organization identifies thematic service issues and runs them through a lean process to breakthrough inefficiencies. About 43% of participating institutions reported that they have a common set of processes to manage the patient experience across multiple functions. In addition to performance improvement initiatives, over 53% of participating institutions monitor their HCAHPS results and 62% report monitoring patient satisfaction on a continuous basis. A total of 86% of participating institutions report that their organization currently has a service recovery program in place and 73% report service recovery issues are monitored and addressed throughout their patients’ stay. These tactics are all valuable ways of monitoring patient satisfaction, however, arguably offer limited insight into the patient experience as the richness that comes through qualitative research is missing. For a better pulse on the voice of the patient and to gain more empathy from the institutions’ faculty and staff, one on one in depth interviews serve as great complements to quantitative research methods as it probes deeper into areas of dissatisfaction. Qualitative research is widely used by prominent institutions to complement their quantitative research such as HCAHPS. Opportunities For those organizations that want to build stronger experience management programs, there are three areas for development to consider. First, only 43% of participating institutions report that their organization has a common set of expected behaviors to manage the patient experience across multiple functions. Patients often experience disjointed processes between departments in the form of long wait times and miscommunications between care providers leading to dissatisfaction. This is an issue that some of the top institutions are contending with as they struggle to align the various departments and cut through institutional red tape.



Implementing an overarching institutional strategy behind patient experience management with departmental buy-‐in and support is a step in the right direction to begin addressing this. Second, going beyond meeting functional needs by addressing the emotional and psychological needs of patients can have a strong impact on the patient experience. For many patients, this is a very

stressful time in their life. While 62% of participating institutions stated that their organization has service standards that acknowledge the anxiety patients have with their condition only 20% report having systems that are designed to enable each person who interacts with a patient to understand his/her preferences. The ability to anticipate a patient’s needs can help staff members reduce stress and consistently meet or exceed their expectations. Developing uniform service standards that build a culture of empathy and caring is a good way to lay the groundwork for an institution. By managing the patient experience, an institution can eliminate the guesswork for their faculty and staff by identifying specific needs various patient groups have throughout the stages of their experience. While 87% of participating institutions report that their organization offers support groups, unfortunately, not all patients take advantage of these services. As the evolution of experience management strategies continues, identifying methods to address emotional needs should be considered to compliment the advances made through technology-‐related and performance improvement initiatives. Finally, not having a shared vision and understanding within the organization regarding their patient experience strategy is a major challenge. Only 54% of participants agreed that senior executives and staff are aligned in their view of patient experience management. Ironically, 71% of participants believed that their organization has a common set of expected behaviors to manage the patient experience at the individual level. Clearly, there is a gap between the vision and the execution of the patient experience management strategy for many organizations. Most organizations feel strongly that patient experience is a strategic imperative, yet nearly half believe senior executives and staff are not aligned in their view of patient experience management. Closing this gap will require a shared vision, a clearly defined patient experience strategy, strong



leadership to execute, and a patient-‐ focused culture to implement. For a successful endeavor in patient experience management, leadership needs to be behind the patient experience management strategy on an institutional level and develop teams, meetings and constant communications and workshops to build and maintain faculty and staff support and engagement in these efforts. Conclusion Managing the patient experience will continue to be a top priority for healthcare organizations and their leaders. As experience management strategies evolve from implementing technology and process improvement initiatives to deeper organization or culture changes, those who invest in the patient experience will likely continue to grow and thrive. Patients, as any other service customer, shop around for their providers and beyond looking for professionals who can meet their medical needs, they look for professionals who will provide them a high quality service level and experience. Your patients will have an experience with your institution, but it’ll be up to leadership and the institution as a whole to manage and mold that experience into the ideal experience representative of your institution’s brand. ABOUT THE COLLABORATORS APQC APQC is a member-‐based nonprofit and one of the world’s leading proponents of knowledge management, benchmarking, and best practices business research. Working with more than 750 organizations worldwide in all industries, APQC provides organizations with the information they need to work smarter, faster, and with confidence. Visit www.apqc.org or call +1.713.681.4020 and learn how to Make Best Practices Your PracticesSM. The Beryl Institute The Beryl Institute is the global community of practice and premier thought leader on improving the patient experience. The Institute serves as a reliable resource for shared information and proven practices, a dynamic incubator of leading research and new ideas and an interactive connector of leaders and practitioners. The Institute is uniquely positioned to develop and publicize cutting-‐edge concepts focused on improving the patient experience, touching thousands of healthcare executives and patients. Learn more at www.theberylinstitute.org. Gelb Consulting, An Endeavor Management Company In 2012, Gelb Consulting became an Endeavor Management Company. With our Gelb experience (founded in 1965) ,we offer clients in-‐depth insights in the healthcare industry and unique capabilities that focus their marketing initiatives by fully understanding and shaping the customer



experience through proven strategic frameworks to guide marketing strategies, build trusted brands, deliver exceptional customer experiences and launch new products. Visit www.endeavormgmt.com or call +1.713.877.8130 for more information.

2012 Benchmarking Study - Patient Experience Management in Healthcare

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