By Jay Juffre
When it comes to your approach to delivering high quality patient care, how is your organization viewed by the community, your patients, or your team? Would the general response be “Dynamite” or “Dinosaur”? The best of the best are continuously looking at their processes and on an obsessive quest to get better every day. These folks objectively look to enhance patient outcomes, safety and overall satisfaction. This is done by regularly looking at the metrics, analyzing current approaches, seeking patient and staff feedback, and facing reality when it comes to execution. It is easy to say we have a culture of continuous quality improvement, but it is much more difficult to make it a reality. Here are some ways to approach this. First of all, make sure there is a “find a better way, everyday” mentality at every level in the organization. Obviously, there needs to be an organized approach to implementation, but encourage the team to recognize opportunities to improve patient experience and make space to allow these ideas to be presented. For example, imagine your team starting every meeting, debrief, or huddle with the question, “anybody have any new ideas on how we can improve patient care?” Secondly, be willing to take a hard look at every process you currently have which impacts patients? Ask questions like, “How good is this process?”, “How well do we execute it?”, “How can we improve?” A final suggestion would be to listen, really listen to the voice of the patient. Too often, we are too busy to really hear what they are saying they would like to see improved. Before jumping to conclusions like there is nothing we can do about that or that’s the way it has always been, take to heart what they are saying and look for ways to make progress in the areas of concern. When it comes to patient care, having an organization that is never satisfied with the status quo will make you stand out in the crowd!
Jay Juffre is Executive Vice President, Total Customer Experience, ImageFIRST. For more information on ImageFIRST, call 1-800-932-7472 or visit www.imagefirst.com.
