For many years, there has been a stranglehold “Profits over People” mentality for healthcare leaders. These “Profits over People” traditionalists care about their hospital’s labor, research, and equipment costs, Medicare reimbursements, pharmaceutical companies’ payments in cash and in-kind gifts, and their patients’ payments more than they do their patients. Listening to the sweet cha-ching sound of profits, these traditionalists do not hear the concerns and complaints of their patients and their caregivers. They care more about profits and didn’t care much about their patients.
Well, no more! To paraphrase John DiJulius’ customer service battle cry, it’s time for a Patient CARE Revolution! Let’s be revolutionary to improve the patient experience. This revolution “is a radical overthrow of conventional business mentality, designed to transform what” patients “experience. This shift produces a culture that permeates into people’s personal lives, at home, and in the community,” says DiJulius.
Instead of focusing on the hospital’s financial health, doctors should focus on the patient’s emotional well-being. Whether healthcare professionals know it or not, patients seek the best emotional value in their experience, not just a remedy to their physical ailments. Patients don’t care how big the hospital is. They only care about how big the doctors and nurses care about them. So rather than focusing on healthcare, doctors and nurses should focus on patient care and CARE for their patients.
- COMMUNICATE with each patient with a smile, eye contact, and polite interaction. Inform each patient and caregiver transparently and interactively of the ailment, prognosis, medications, therapy, and recovery outcomes.
- ACKNOWLEDGE each patient’s emotional presence and value to the doctor and nurse,
- RESPOND promptly and empathetically to each patient’s and caregiver’s angst, questions, concerns, and complaints.
- ENRICH the experiences and, ultimately, the lives of every patient.
And when doctors and nurses CARE, their patients and caregivers are WOWED, grateful and happy, raving to others on social media.
So let’s be revolutionary to improve the patient experience and have doctors and nurses CARE for their patients. When healthcare professionals engage with their emotional, human patients, everyone’s lives will be enriched.
This is our time. Let’s be loud and proud. Let’s be revolutionary! And let’s make healthcare professionals be GREAT out there! Vive la revolution!
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BILL QUISENG | Deliver the World's Best Customer Experience 