Those that put kindness first in Patient Experience do better. It shows from the very first patient touch point through the entire patient journey.

How do you develop a culture of kindness and service with healing?

Team building exercises are part of kindness training, and a recognition that health care needs to put kindness first. Health care is busy and understaffed, and it can be overwhelming for many patients.

The Pandemic is in the rear-view mirror, but its legacy remains with us for a variety of reasons. There is a feeling of betrayal. What we were told was untrue. The vaccines neither prevented COVID nor its transmission to others.

Many people did not get the vaccine. Those who did not were openly discriminated against. The federal government shut down dissent. The Twitter files exposed the level of censorship of free speech, yet there is no apology.

Senior leadership knows that Patient Experience is the currency of patient loyalty and new growth. Nurses are inherently empathetic, and kindness comes naturally to them, but professionalism demands separation of evident kindness from care of patients.

Physicians are healers, but spending several hours each day entering patient clinical notes in My Chart can sour your taste. Fifteen-minute billing cycles have become the norm, and it is easy to be laser-focused and not hear a patient ask a question.

This says Patient Experience in general is favorable, but a closer look under the hood may be different. It only takes one insufferable person along the patient journey to ruin a patient’s day.

Every patient strives for wellness. His health goals may be short-term or longer term, but either way they reflect how he feels about his health.

Each patient deserves the very best care. Identify pain points that need to be improved. Use Team meetings and role play to recognize patient behaviors and appropriate responses. This ensures that each patient touch point is positive.

Practice what is appropriate at each patient touch point. Role-play different patient scenarios. Be creative. Critique each other on how to improve.

The first patient touch points involves various staff. They, too, should role-play to improve their delivery.  Their professionalism is readily apparent, but is there a sense of kindness?

The first impression is a lasting one. Be professional, but also greet the patient with a smile and a kind word.  Use good eye contact. Listen. Do your job with kindness. It shows when you put kindness first.

Every patient deserves the very best care. One exchange can make all the difference in how a patient feels.

Use your ready smile to set a tone. A smile can overcome anxiety, make the exchange more meaningful, and make it easier for the patient. Make each patient touch point a positive.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget how far you’ve come on your wellness recovery journey.  A kind word helps a patient maintain hope and confidence he’s moving in the right direction.

Best Practices are consistent with mapping out what a successful patient journey looks like at each   touch point. Discuss this with your Team – get their feedback.

Drill down to the department level. Map out the patient wellness recovery journey for each department. Collaborate with physicians to ensure they are part of Patient Experience.

The physicians who are communicators listen to their patients. They view the physician-patient relationship as critical and are kind healers.

Know where each patient is on his wellness recovery journey. Recognize the differences in personalities and understand when a patient is struggling. This is not easy, and recovery seldom is linear. Ups and downs are part of the journey.

Hospitals practice evidence-based medicine. They also practice patient-centric medicine as the standard of care.The closer they align; the better Patient Experience is.

Health care has many moving parts. It is under siege with diminished reimbursement from the federal government and private payers alike. More is better and size matters, especially if the system has an insurance entity, but something is lost when kindness no longer is the first thought.

Is kindness evident in each patient’s wellness recovery journey?  Does feedback from each patient recognize this?

Nurses are on the front line of health care. Listen to them. They have the people skills and are a calming, nurturing influence. This is what they do. Listen to them when they have a suggestion.

We’re only here for a little while. Make haste to be kind to those we take care of. The wellness recovery journey is different for every patient.

Healing is the goal.

Patient experience affects attitude, and attitude helps determine wellness recovery. It is a thing of beauty when kindness is abundantly evident and patient outcomes are as they should be.

Patients willingly take to social media to tell their story, or they share it with friends and neighbors.  It produces more testimonials and more word-of-mouth advertising. It’s all good when Patient Experience is outstanding.

They are a teaching hospital that specializes in top care. They are a stand-alone medical center that does it right. They are a vital community hospital meeting the standard of care. They are an urban Safety Net hospital where the social determinants of health are more evident. They are Rural Health America delivering service to their friends and neighbors.

Heath care is evolving to a new future, and Patient Experience ensures evidence-based medicine and patient-centric medicine are perfectly aligned.  Fearless. A new health care.