Making the Patient Experience

How Long Have You Been A Part Of The Patient Experience At Uk King's Daughters, And What Has Changed In Your Time With The Team?

I moved from nursing to the patient experience team in 2016, and in 2022, I became the director of the team. When I first began, we hoped to begin breaking down the silos among departments and pull people together to help achieve our mission: To Care. To Serve. To Heal.

What Were Some Of Your First Steps?

We looked at the patient satisfaction results we were getting, and one thing that came from that was deciding to invest in a platform that would address things more quickly. We also initiated new best practices and strategies for improvement that our teams could access faster and more effectively. That made it easier to alter our strategy to what our team and patients wanted and would do in terms of returning patient satisfaction surveys.

Switching vendors brought our patient experience efforts into the modern era. We dropped mail and paper surveys and switched to phone calls and email. We also scaled down the survey to just 10 questions. These changes aligned with feedback from our patients and our Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC).

What Else Does The Pfac Do For You?

This effort to seek advice from patients and their families started in 2013. This group has evolved, from frequency of the meetings to participation and feedback about different aspects of our organization. Today, group members are brought in and included in the planning of hospital projects, like our new Emergency and Imaging building that is scheduled to open in spring 2025.

How Is Leading A Very Different But Very Consequential Part Of The Patient Experience: Valet Parking?

We provided free valet parking in the mid to late 2000s, but had to downsize the program after a few years. Patients and families were very supportive of the service and lobbied for it to return. We brought it back as soon finances would allow. This is one big example of patients being heard.

We are very fortunate to have free valet parking on our main campus. Many times, our valets are the first faces our patients see. We consider them part of our patient experience team. Our drivers know they are part of the patient experience. They are very engaged, courteous and safety-conscious. On busy days, park, see 500-plus vehicles, and interact with thousands of customers.

With a major construction project underway, we knew valet services alone would not be enough to meet patient needs. We started a free shuttle service for patients, visitors and team members. It started out with a limited scope, but today, we run multiple shuttles and a 24/7 schedule. Not only do our drivers exhibit great customer service, but they also go the extra mile to help. It's not uncommon to hear from our midnight shift emergency department nurses in the colder months that their shuttle driver took them to their vehicles and also got out to scrape their windows!

At Uk King's Daughters, What Do You Think Is The Key To A Successful Patient Experience Program?

In healthcare, it's all about the human experience. To show that, we need a team that focuses on good communication. Success here is very simple: consider the humanity involved in the critical times of our patients' lives. COVID really drove that home for everyone.

During the pandemic, our teams came together to ensure every patient received the best care possible. In the middle of it, our hospital adapted and created new services like a drivethru center for testing and making highly accessible vaccine clinics throughout our service area, and the latest treatments for COVID when they became available. These things helped pull our teams together. It was a terrible time, but it had lasting, positive effects on our team. Our pandemic efforts really helped strengthen our relationship with our communities.