Patient Experience Week is April 27-May 1 this year. In honor of the healthcare holiday, here is a list of three things you can do in your hospital to improve the patient experience.
No one likes to wait for an extended period of time, especially at a hospital. Unfortunately, hospitals typically don’t have much insight into their wait times, and they aren’t aware of where their bottlenecks occur. Fortunately, the Clean Hands – Safe Hands system is constantly collecting data around provider movement and can alert hospital leadership to potential workflow problems. In some cases, providers may have the wrong items on their carts, or they might have to make frequent and inconvenient trips to the supply closet. These inconveniences contribute to patients having to wait longer for their provider to attend to them. Clean Hands – Safe Hands can detect workflow issues and the hospital can investigate. Removing these bottlenecks alleviates wait times for patients and allows the unit to run more efficiently. Click here to read more about identifying workflow problems.
While patient satisfaction is an important component of the patient experience, so is patient safety. One of the most common reasons patients fall is that they get up to use the restroom unassisted. The solution to this is simply to ensure that patients are checked on regularly. Unfortunately, capturing that data and evaluating it in real-time can be nearly impossible. That’s where technology comes in to play. The Clean Hands – Safe Hands Real Time Intervention Blueprint™ below shows patient interactions by room in real-time. In the graphic below, the size of the blue square represents the number of provider entrances and exits. Leadership can ensure that high risk patients are attended to regularly. If a patient isn’t visited during an expected amount of time, the system can alert the unit leader. Click here to read more about reducing the risk of falls.
Patients often notice when providers don’t clean their hands, but they typically don’t feel comfortable speaking up (more on that here). The Clean Hands – Safe Hands system has a Natural Language Voice Reminder™ that gently reminds providers in the moment to wash their hands if they forget. Not only does a voice improve hand hygiene rates, it serves as a patient advocate in the room. The voice reminder assures patients that their hospital takes hand hygiene and their patients’ safety seriously.
To learn more about Patient Experience Week, check out the Beryl Institute, and to learn more about how you can improve the patient experience in your facility, contact Clean Hands – Safe Hands.
