“Health care is an extraordinarily people-centric industry. Aside from the obvious fact that the patient consumes services to his or her physical body, nearly all treatments and procedures are administered by people. The management of health care personnel takes place in a complex environment involving a variety of professionals, extensive use of materials and equipment, and an array of services that extend beyond health care to include food, hospitality, and instruction. This challenging environment places a great deal of stress on employees.”
–The Relationship Between Employee Satisfaction and Hospital Patient Experiences
The quote above is from a 2009 study by researchers at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Northwestern University. The landmark study concluded that hospitals with higher rates of employee engagement and satisfaction experienced notable improvements in areas such as employee productivity, retention, patient satisfaction, and loyalty. They also experienced lower costs related to the delivery of patient care due to reduced length of stay.
In order to achieve the aforementioned improvements, hospitals often have to undertake great challenges such as upfront costs, cultural shifts, and leadership alignment. In many cases, decision makers understand and wish to address these challenges, but struggle to find avenues for targeted advancements in employee engagement.
When this happens, hospitals and health systems should turn to technology solutions that can help find meaningful ways to improve staff workflows, recognition, and satisfaction. For example, enhanced rounding is often an overlooked yet intrinsic process for achieving excellent care. We will explore how two different health systems, Henry Ford and Sentara, used technology to improve rounding.
Improving Efficiency at Henry Ford Health System
In early 2015, Henry Ford Health System determined that they needed a solution that would enhance communication among the care team, increase the visibility of care, and enable prompt issue recognition and resolution.
They chose CipherHealth’s digital rounding tool, CipherRounds.
While this initiative was aimed at enhancing collaboration and improving the patient experience, they did not anticipate the positive ways in which the tool would impact job satisfaction on the nurse leadership team.
After 40 days of using CipherRounds, nurses reported improvements across all survey categories. Specifically, nurses felt they were 21% more capable of making a positive impact during rounds and were 8% more satisfied with rounding. Additionally, scores for the ability to track and trend patient information increased sharply by 57%.
Sentara Tackles the Triple Aim
Sentara Healthcare set comprehensive goals around improving the patient experience, reducing costs, and managing population health: the triple aim of healthcare. While working towards these goals, management decided to place an emphasis on staff satisfaction as well, realizing that the triple aim was not possible without happy, empowered staff on the front lines.
To monitor the effects of CipherRounds, the team surveyed its nurses before CipherRounds implementation, 30 days after, and 120 days after. The results exceeded expectations.
After using CipherRounds, nurses felt that they were 56% more effective in resolving issues and 55% more satisfied with rounding in general. At the 120-day mark, all survey categories surpassed the 3.5 out of 5 mark, with increases of at least one numerical value for each category. As a result of this success, Sentara decided to implement CipherRounds system-wide.
Where Staff Satisfaction Meets Patient Experience
Patient rounding has long been proven to be a valuable undertaking as it relates to patient experience and improved clinical outcomes. With the right programs, hospitals not only improve patient and staff member experience, but they also create a better environment for healing.
By equipping their teams with the right tools (like CipherRounds) and committing to cultivating an open, safe, and nurturing culture, organizations like Henry Ford Hospital, Sentara Healthcare, and others, have made great strides in enhancing the patient experience, saving money, and improving clinical outcomes.
To learn more about the clinically-proven outcomes over 500 hospitals and health systems have achieved in working with CipherHealth, contact us today.
