Pictured from left to right are Betsy (patient experience), Jacqueline (Unit Secretary), Sharon (PCA), Janice (unit secretary), Will (partnership office), Delia (Unit Secretary), Kona Enders (PCA and new SHARE organizer), Harriet (PCA), Deb (SHARE organizer) and William (PCA)
On December 7th, ten SHARE members (primarily PCAs and unit secretaries) took part in a half day retreat to learn about and improve the experience of our patients on the Med Center’s inpatient floors. Our patients and their families have reported through their HCAHPS surveys that often despite providing them with care that is great in many ways, we disappoint them in three particular areas: responsiveness to call lights and toileting needs, quiet at night, and communicating with them about potential side effects of their medications. At the event, SHARE members (along with a few dozen other UMMMC caregivers) divided up into three teams to review the data, read patient comments, tell stories from their own experience of what works and what doesn’t. They then brainstormed and prioritized root causes that can make it hard to meet these patient needs, and then brainstormed and selected interventions that might make it easier meet these needs despite the staffing and volume challenges we face.
SHARE member Kona Enders says the retreat included important discussion about things that need to be done. “When we put improvements in process, there needs to be follow up,” she said. “Bedside rounding, equipment organization, those things need to be consistent and sustained.”
“It was a great event,” adds SHARE Organizer Deb Engvall. “It’s always a good thing to get workers together with people from different areas and levels, brainstorming ideas that effect their daily work and coming up with solutions that could impact patient-satisfaction and employee-satisfaction. The patients’ frustrations are frustrations for the workers too. It’s a win-win. And fun!”
On December 13th leaders from the Patient Experience team will report out to Dr Gustafson on the plans our members helped to craft, and later this Winter the Med Center will begin to implement those plans.