The Impact of an Engaged Workforce in Patient Experience.
A popular phrase at industry events is: “the health care landscape is shifting like never before”—and recent developments prove this is accurate. There are several factors contributing to higher turnover and attrition rates at hospitals, including the wave of consolidation in hospitals and health systems that makes it hard for an organization to adequately address human resource issues.
Hospitals have an obligation to improve clinical quality and the experience of care for patients and families. With large and small provider organizations struggling to attract and retain essential staff, hospital leaders realize the key to achieving improved outcomes is to establish a positive culture, which will lead to an engaged and committed workforce. Additionally, the prevalence of EHR’s has forced care providers to alter the way they interact with colleagues, patients and families. Despite advances in medical technology, health care is ultimately a people business; and the focus on initial and sustained improvement in key indicators, such as HCAHPS scores, is a top priority.
In a recent white paper published by Swank Patient Entertainment and co-authored by renowned patient experience leader Colleen Sweeney, it is argued that hospital leaders must respond proactively to the challenges of nursing shortages. Health care has become a very competitive market, and the number of people seeking and evaluating care options will increase competitive pressure and pressure to perform more efficiently, and with better outcomes, across the board.
Hospitals are realizing strategies and programs leading to an improved patient experience can also lead to a positive culture change — one that is representative of an attractive employment destination where leadership and staff are in agreement in putting patients and families first.
More than HCAHPS scores, other data is beginning to emerge indicating an engaged workforce leads to improved outcomes and more. A recent whitepaper by Press Ganey Associates titled “Every Voice Matters: The Bottom Line on Employee and Physician Engagement” showed that, “Organizations with high employee and physician engagement receive higher scores on every HCAHPS dimension. In fact, hospitals scoring in the top 10 percent of employee engagement average 61 percentile points higher on the HCAHPS Overall Hospital Rating item than hospitals in the bottom 10 percent.”
Despite technical advances, at its core, health care is a business that revolves around people. When hospitals are unwavering in their commitment to put people first — both patients and staff — the patient experience improves immensely.