IMPROVING THE PATIENT EXPERIENCE BY THE NUMBERS
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Delivering High-Quality Care through Enhanced Communication
The Office of Patient Experience and Engagement (OPXE) agrees
that providing high-quality care starts with effective communication
between patients and caregivers. In 2017, we were awarded a UA Health
Services Foundation General Endowment Fund grant to begin the
Advanced Communication Training (ACT) Institute. Some 11 caregivers
were selected to participate in an in-depth training program led by
Vital Talks. This program teaches caregivers how to become master
communicators. In 2018, this hand-selected group of caregivers will be
working to share their expertise across UAB Medicine to strengthen our
commitment to an exceptional experience for all patients and families.
In April 2017, we hosted our second annual Patient Experience Week,
which featured educational sessions for leaders and caregivers to learn
more about delivering exceptional experiences to patients and families.
We were excited to host a number of keynote speakers such as Noah
Galloway, Rich Bluni, and Tom Lee. In addition to keynote speakers, we
hosted two impactful panel discussions. One focused on hearing the
voices of our patients and families. Employees who have been patients
and members of our Patient and Family Advisory Council shared their
stories of exceptional care. The other was a panel of UAB Medicine
providers discussing how they have owned the patient experience. This
panel was so successful that it has been scheduled as a grand rounds
topic in 2018. ‘Know Your Doctor’ Campaign
In 2017, our patients told us how important it is to know who their
doctor is while they are an inpatient. In response to this request, Gary
Jones, our inpatient experience coach, led a project in connection
with the UAB Medicine Hospitalist Service to better communicate
with patients and family members about the physician who would be
providing their care. The “Know Your Doctor” campaign was a great
success, and Jones’ work was selected as a poster at the national
What’s Right in Healthcare meeting in August.
Building Trusting Relationships with Patients and Families
During 2017, OPXE partnered with Cipher Health to launch a new digital
rounding application called Orchid. Orchid is helping leaders and
staff hear the voice of our patients in real time while simplifying work.
This digital rounding application has disrupted many paper-based
processes, making data collection, auditing, and reporting faster and
easier. John Dodd from OPXE led this initiative across UAB Medicine.
To date, UAB Medicine leaders and employees have completed over
74,000 rounds on patients and families. In addition, there are over 30
individual scripts loaded into the tool. This represents a significant
savings in paper and time. UAB Medicine is garnering national attention
for how quickly we leveraged this technology for enhanced patient
listening and innovation. Patient-Centric Processes
Bedside shift reports have long been a best practice among many
health care facilities. In 2017, Gary Jones, our inpatient coach, received
the charge from our chief nursing officer to implement the process
across UAB Hospital and UAB Hospital-Highlands. The bedside shift
report process allows nursing to hand off from shift to shift in front of
the patient, which includes the patient in the care process. It also allows
for vital safety checks to help reduce medication errors while improving
other quality metrics. Training and validation classes started at UAB
Hospital-Highlands, allowing nursing staff to perform simulations
of bedside shift reports and review what could be improved. Once
the training was completed, nurse managers were tasked to validate
whether key behaviors were being practiced in their units.
UAB Quality and Safety Annual Report