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Emergency Departments are in a new age where quality care must be provided with an excellent patient experience. In 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will fully implement the Emergency Department Patient Experience of Care (EDPEC) as a standardized method of gathering and publically reporting emergency department patients’ experience across the nation.1
Seeing this as an opportunity to create a culture of excellence in patient experience for their ED, a four-hospital system in Texas contracted with Philips Blue Jay Consulting to identify and deliver process improvement initiatives to achieve their patient experience goals.
After three successful twenty-six week engagements featuring dedicated training, observation and validation, this hospital system was able to successfully enhance the emergency department experience provided to their patients. The hospital systems overall Press Ganey® standard score increased by 27 percentile points. The system adopted methodologies, training program, and process improvement initiatives that will support sustainable success and will continue to foster a culture of excellence.
The initial engagement was so successful that the health system contracted with Philips Blue Jay Consulting for two additional twenty-six week consulting engagements with a particular focus on improving patient experience within their Emergency Departments.
The following engagements focused on the clinical staff and then the medical staff. The goals of these engagements were to create a consistent patient experience education and training program, to enhance the patient perception of care through refined workflow processes, and to improve patient experience across all emergency departments in the system.
Philips facilitated the following initiatives to achieve these goals:
Through dedicated training, observation, and validation, this hospital system was able to successfully enhance the emergency department experience provided to their patients. The Press Ganey® standard overall score increased by 27 percentile points. The staff has developed a culture of caring and a realization that patient experience and quality of care are synonymous.
All four hospitals had substantial increases in their Press Ganey overall standard rating, nurse rating, doctor rating, overall rating of ED care, and likelihood to recommend. Improvements include:
Rick J. McCraw, MBA, MHA, RN, CEN, FACHE
Principal and Assessments Lead
Beth Fuller, MS, RN, CEN, CCRN, CFRN
Consulting Manager
Emergency Department Optimization
A hands-on approach to improving process efficiency in the emergency department, to reduce left without being seen (LWBS) and increase collectible revenue.
Analytics to help improve ED performance
Improved ED performance with process improvement consulting and a performance dashboard at McLeod Health Clarendon Hospital.