In my role of PFA or Patient Family Advisor, I recently learned that the Hospital has a “Patient Experience” week which I will refer to as Px week. It is an annual event to celebrate healthcare staff impacting patient experience everyday. It helps to celebrate accomplishments, re-energize efforts and honor the people who impact patient experience everyday. My hospital is celebrating the week of April 27th thru to May 1st. Apparently this is the week all hospitals celebrate Px week nationally.
I decided to join a committee to help come up with some ideas and plans for the week. I attended my first planning meeting. I listened to some lessons learned from last year and what was proposed from an organizational level.
Since becoming a PFA, I now have access to the Beryl Institute’s website. As per their site, “It is the global community of practice dedicated to improving the patient experience through collaboration and shared knowledge” It is a great site that has resources to help address patient experience needs and allows people to share and collaborate with peers..
The Beryl Institute defines patient experience as “the sum of all interactions, shaped by an organization’s culture that influence patient perceptions across the continuum of care”
For me, patient experience is timely appointments, easy access to information, good communication with health care providers. I find what makes it an outstanding experience, are the little things or the human touch. Communication and respect is also key to a great experience…
So looks like there will be a schedule of events over the week rounding up and closing off with an ice cream treat event.
I understand the budget is limited however we will have some raffles, and prizes and little things for the staff. Anyway we are going to have weekly meetings until the event to work out all the details.
In any event this is a short post today! I will probably post more on this event once it gets closer…
I am sure everyone has had a specific experience in a hospital that was either great or not so great. If I was walking around the hospital with a recording device and a microphone, what hospital experience would you want to share? Keep in mind, even experiences that are not so great, should be shared because it is an opportunity to take action to rectify the next experience.
I haven’t always had great experiences with healthcare providers, Dr. Dick, comes to mind. That said, I have really come to appreciate the healthcare providers and support staff that work with my hospital…
Live well, Laugh often and Make Connections….til next post!!
