Patient Safety

Healthcare organizations across the country face stay-at-home orders that make it difficult to deliver in-person care. But even outside of the urgent need for providers to provide care to critically ill patients with COVID-19, patients need access to care when they are ill or injured by other causes. 

Patient Safety Awareness Week, which runs March 8-14, encourages healthcare providers, organizations, patients, and the general public to learn about local and global healthcare safety issues. 

Healthcare safety issues, or “medical harm,” are a significant cause of death in the United States. Even when such errors do not result in death, they can still have long-term negative effects on a patient’s health and finances. Patient Safety Awareness Week is an opportunity for healthcare organizations to consider the potential causes of medical harm and how to prevent it.

Talent recruitment and retention remain among the top challenges facing healthcare organizations in the new decade. According to a SHRM survey, 46% of HR professionals rated highly skilled medical positions as very difficult to fill.

It’s no secret that patient experience in a healthcare setting is deeply connected to the employee experience of healthcare workers. 

Organizations have been able to improve patient loyalty by moving the needle on their employee engagement. One healthcare organization increased its workforce engagement from 9% to 30% and saw a nearly 5 point increase in the number of patients likely to recommend their services. 

Healthcare providers, organizations, and facilities may find it challenging to meet patients’ changing expectations. However, they should not ignore the enormous influence that expectations can have on the patient experience.

Research has suggested that patient expectations can influence their satisfaction with their care and their perceptions of their own health. The more that healthcare providers and organizations can address patient expectations, the more likely they are to earn and keep their patients’ trust.

All healthcare providers are powered by their belief in access to quality care for all. But even as technology brings us closer together, many patients continue to face insurmountable barriers such as high costs and lack of available care.

As we head into 2020, what other challenges face healthcare, and what steps can we take to overcome them? Luckily cultural changes and the continued integration of technology can lay some of the groundwork for transformation.

Healthcare has been trending toward standardized care, but the thought is often met with skepticism and concern regarding “cookbook medicine.” “When care standardization first started in the '90s there was a great deal of resistance,” says Dr. Kate Tulenko, CEO of Corvus Health.

Compassion is a ubiquitous human trait, and it goes by a lot of names. One such iteration has the power to decide the fate of healthcare professionals everywhere: bedside manner. Patients want the doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals they interact with to be engaged, understanding and good at listening. Anything short of that can have negative repercussions for the patient.

The patient experience increasingly matters for healthcare organizations. Harvard Business Review says that upwards of 60 percent of healthcare spending can be directly influenced by active patient choices. This means optimizing the patient experience is critical for your organization’s success. But what exactly does that look like?

As the healthcare sector witnesses unprecedented organizational changes, fostering leadership potential in physicians is crucial. Studies have shown that physician leadership has positive effects on both organizational outcomes and patient care. There’s no question that physician leadership marks a change for the better in healthcare organizations, but achieving that change can be difficult.

So how can HR teams in healthcare organizations integrate physicians into leadership roles?