"The staff was great. They made you feel comfortable. If I could give higher than a ten I would."
"I was very much impressed by the overall friendliness and helpfulness of the staff."
"I will not go to any other hospital."
The above are a few recent verbatim comments from patients treated at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital, where patient satisfaction scores have increased dramatically over the past year. Overall, a seven percent increase from 71.4 in January to 78.5 in July.
Why? It's an emphasis on the "patient experience."
"If you want to talk about hospitals, it's not bricks and mortar. It's the patient," says Annette Stowers, RN, administrative director of nursing practice, education and performance improvement at SLU Hospital. "We expect you to have good surgical outcomes, but as far as the patients concerned if we're not good at little things it doesn't matter. It's about the experience."
Stowers rolled out the patient experience effort in April by working to implement and hardwire several new aspects to patient care.
-The use of AIDET, a five step (Acknowledge, Introduce, Duration, Explanation, Thank You) effort to improve patient communication
-Assess bedside shift reporting for patient handoffs
-A new multidisciplinary patient experience team including a physician and a former patient to assess improvement
-A new rounding effort with the guest services role of Elise Reese, RN, changed to SLU Hospital's Patient Experience Coordinator.
In rounding, Reese meets with 20 new patient admits per day. "It sets the stage to let patients know we're there for them," says Reese.
Such efforts are consistent on an outpatient level as well. Outpatient services in SSM Health Care received two "five star" scores in June and July, helping SLU Hospital rank #10 across 26 SSM Health hospitals, up from #15 in 2012. Diagnostic imaging shined with an 88.7 score in July.
According to Susan Aly, manager of imaging services, SSM Health Care staff perform little touches to ensure patients have a positive experience.
"Patients have choices in where they go and we want to make sure their patient experience is a positive," says Aly.
For example, patients get personal 'Thank You' cards from all the staff who touch their care. "They also get a card with all the names of those who cared for them and has contact information to call their caregiver with questions," says Aly.
"We want patients to know we will be there for their needs," says Stowers. "It's exciting to see the improvement."
