OSF seeks to inform, empower patients
OSF seeks to inform, empower patients
How health care has changed
It used to be that patients would just listen and do what they were told. Not anymore.
With the HCAHPS coming, OSF Saint James-John W. Albrecht Medical Center in Pontiac, IL, knew it had to something. And thus the "We Always Care" program was born.
"Back in my day as a nurse on the floor, even seeing my parents go through the health care system, they never really questioned anything in regards to their care. The doctors told them this and that was it," says OSF's vice president of patient care services, Cheryl Simmons, RN, MS, CPHQ.
The hospital began asking itself, "what do we have to do to really get patients involved," Simmons says, especially in light of the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers (HCAHPS) tying payment factors with results.
With the We Always Care program, the hospital system sought to promote communication and patient and family involvement in care. To advertise it, OSF made posters and leaflets and placed a card in the admissions packet. Books are placed at patients' bedsides with contact numbers for questions or concerns.
Communication in this day and age is integral to hospital business, says Simmons. "With all the new technology and the new treatments, the additional procedures that have been added, and all the new medications, patients really need to take a bit of a leadership role in their health care."
Each hospital in the health care system provides patients with informational packets at admission as it relates to that specific hospital. At her hospital, the packet includes some infection control information. "MRSA [methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus] is big today, so we have some information on that." Also handed out upon admission is a guest services manual that includes information on items such as patient responsibilities and volunteer services. (See OSF's statement of patient rights.)
Encouraging communication, Simmons says, is embedded in the hospital's culture and its staff. "With us it really starts during the interview process of a potential candidate," she says, adding that the hospital's mission and vision are stressed in the new employee orientation. Guest services and relations are continually emphasized to staff.
Once a year, the hospital has what it calls "Journey to Quality" days. During that time, the hospital's mission to provide care to all is reemphasized. "We discuss any of the topics that have to deal with patient satisfaction, patient understanding, guest services. You've got to keep it going because sometimes it's out of sight, out of mind."
In the new health care arena, with patient safety and regulatory needs, hospital staff "need to look at the whole picture, not just be task-oriented." Simmons says regulatory changes are not made solely because they're required but because they often are the right things to do. "And that's really where our focus is. We [always] ask the question: Is this the right thing for patients, families, employees?"
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