Welcoming Patient Complaints

Mary Pat Whaley outlines a simple strategy for welcoming complaints as a strategy for improvement. She also offers insight into how to handle them, including the dreaded apology.

Simple Solution: Better Signage

This is one of those “well, no duh” parts of experience that is often overlooked. The complex, labyrinthine healthcare complexes are not easy to figure out as a patient showing up for the outpatient procedure he or she is probably dreading anyway. Better signs? Well, bully for that idea! This *almost unbelievably* signage-focused blog, Conversations About Signage, actually gets it right – improving signs so patients can find their way actually would improve the experience. My favorite mention is that of the way hospital staff will always have to help people find their way, so why not make it easier on them, as well?

Honest Attention from Nurses Help Patients Heal FASTER

You read that right. The more “present” nurses are within the experience with patients, the faster those patients heal. Awesome payoff for a small investment in the true experience, IMHO.

We’ve all been patients. What would you suggest to improve the patient experience?

Photo credit Into the Wild via Creative Commons

 

One well-tweeted bit of wisdom came from the Steve Bonner, CEO of the Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA).

What was so remarkable that many attendees felt compelled to share with their networks? This simple idea:

Cancer Treatment Centers of America starts every board meeting with a visit from a patient.

This isn’t about a technology or a new survey technique or about anything else. It’s about real connection.

Why this simple idea is so powerful:

• Data is great, but it’s not human. It’s easy to tell yourself stories about what it means.
• A real, live human telling you specifically about his or her experience with your organization connects on an emotional level.
• Insights gained from a STORY are typically better retained and internalized than those reviewed in a lofty report.
• Inviting all your stakeholders to take a minute before plowing through an agenda to connect with the real cause of your organization provides a focus for the entire team.
• The leaders of your organization can share a story with their team easier than sharing data.

This is one of the areas I enjoy most about customer experience: it’s about people. We are all trying to get through days that have too many complications, too much frustration, and typically lacking enough joy. Our experiences as customers matter. And organizations let us down over and over and over again, even when they have a 98% “satisfaction rate.”

CTCA of course has patients that are facing daily challenges few of us can imagine. So the organization takes responsibility for making their experience as great as it can possibly be. They share tons of data daily, too, but this little piece of their customer experience puzzle is remarkable for the simple way it connects leadership with the people they are truly there to serve. Kudos to them.

What can you do to connect your leadership with customers? Not through data, but through real, live interactions?