Healthcare organizations for a long time have been focusing on improving patient experience. They have designed their systems in a way that they can listen to their patients and families, have redesigned their incentive programs to align with this commitment, and organized teams to improve the experience they are providing.
When I was the leader, accountable for patient experience, I watched how pioneers around me attempted to understand how to answer the voice of their patients.
As a team, how desperately, they needed to make the best choice yet were troubled by the complexity of the system and by priorities that overwhelmed their days.
They wanted to understand their patients’ experience data through a patient feedback app, what’s more, answer in a way that would change the experience their groups were providing.
But they feel trapped by the lack of information that traditional surveys provide and are frustrated that nothing they do seems to have an influence.
At the point when they would call me to their workplaces to audit their information and give some recommendations of what they could do. Then they would often get surprised by my response because I would never pressurize them to concentrate on that information and keep on looking for answers within the feedback. Instead, I would stop them from looking at their patient experience data and tell them to focus on their employees.
Doing this I didn’t mean to say to them that the voice of their patients and families did not matter. In fact, my intention was completely the opposite. I hoped that if leaders could feel a little relief from the burden of work, they would pay attention to the well-being and engagement of their people and would see the double advantage of further developed employee experience prompting worked on patient experience.
Does Enhancing Employee Engagement Improve Patient Experience?
Well, the short answer is yes. Research clearly shows there’s a correlation between the two. Numerous studies have revealed that engaged employees lead to higher patient satisfaction, not to mention higher quality care and stronger financial margins.
A new report from almost 150 VA medical centers over a three-year time span shows that higher employee commitment is connected with higher patient satisfaction, lower nurture turnover, and better all-center performance.
The scandalous article from HBR in 1994, named Putting the Service Profit Chain to Work, has gigantic value in HCOs today. It’s very straightforward in fact: when you put resources into taking care of your people, they are more productive and committed, bringing about a prevalent experience for your clients (ahem, patients) – and at last leads to strong financial performance for prompts execution. We don’t require more research to let us know these things are inseparably linked.
4 methods to further develop employee engagement in healthcare
Many people think that employee happiness and employee engagement are the same. However, the truth is that they both are different things.
Worker engagement is the degree of connection between representatives and their working environment.
While cheerful representatives might be satisfied at work, engaged representatives are really dedicated to their company’s main goal and values. Dissimilar to employee happiness, employee engagement straightforwardly affects a team’s performance.
In the medical care industry, genuinely engaged representatives tremendously have a huge impact on their organizations. Engaged medical services workers lead to higher patient fulfillment rates, expanded patient security, and improved quality care.
Putting investment into employee engagement can also affect a hospital’s financial performance. Medical clinics with the least-engaged nurses pay more than $1.1 million every year in negligence claims than those with the most engaged medical caretakers.
Here are 4 ideas to assist medical care pioneers with better support for their clinical staff, boost employee engagement, and eventually work on improving patient satisfaction and care.
Conduct Employee Engagement Surveys
One of the greatest snags to employee engagement in healthcare is poor internal communications. When employees feel that their feedback isn’t being heard by top leadership, they easily become disengaged and dissatisfied at work. This can lead to a worse patient experience.
So, in order to increase employee engagement, healthcare leaders must conduct regular employee engagement surveys and create an action plan to address feedback.
Give Importance to Peer-to-Peer Recognition and Manager-to-Staff Recognition
Recognition has a strong impact on employee motivation and turnover. According to an SHRM report, companies running employee recognition programs experienced a 63% expansion in worker efficiency and a 51% increment in employee retention.
Without reliable acknowledgment and appreciation, workers can feel invisible. And therefore, the only solution is an employee recognition program. Employee recognition programs can help encourage employees to thank their colleagues for their hard work, highlight heroic acts, and make team members feel more valued.
Give Priority to Learning & Development
Offering learning and improvement opportunities opens doors for your medical care staff that will have a measurable impact on employee retention. In fact, 70% of employees plan to leave an organization in search of an organization that offers them better learning opportunities.
Organizations with a solid learning society appreciate 30-50% higher employee engagement and consistency standards than those that don’t.
Therefore, healthcare organizations must give priority to staff learning and ongoing job training to employees.
Medical service providers that focus on staff learning and advancement see further developed turnover rates and quality of care.
Providing ongoing on-the-job training, such as leadership training for managers and supervisors, can have a measurable impact on team retention.
Provide Strong Peer Support & Mentorship
Strong support and mentorship can boost employee morale. Recently, 83% of workers taking part in a coaching program said that their experience decidedly impacted their desire to remain at their organization.
A mentoring or peer support program can lead to stronger professional relationships and more joyful employees. For medical care experts confronting troublesome difficulties in the work environment, a listening ear can make all the difference.
