Dive Brief:
- A new Press Ganey white paper argues safety, quality, patient experience and workforce engagement are interrelated and offers a framework for provider organizations to improve connectivity.
- The framework is broken down into six guiding principles with the aim of helping providers create "transformational change" across their organizations, starting with a commitment to zero harm.
- According to Press Ganey research, converging efforts across dimensions "yields greater overall performance ratings" than efforts that exist in silos.
Dive Insight:
The framework follows a white paper the quality measure group put out last year analyzing CMS data that described the connections between safety, perceptions of care experience, engagement level of workforce and the financial performance of provider organizations.
"We've been having conversations with hospitals across the country about how you actually execute on this," Dr. Jim Merlino, president and chief medical officer of Press Ganey's strategic consulting division, told Healthcare Dive. "How do we think about making that [data] meaningful?"
This new white paper provides a six-principle framework for action for leadership:
1. Commitment to a goal of zero harm.
2. Placing patients at the center of planning, delivery and assessment of care.
3. Recognizing and defining safety, quality and patient centricity as the primary elements of the patient experience and understanding the critical interdependencies between them.
4. Driving change using data and transparency.
5. Transforming culture and leadership.
6. Focusing on accountability and execution.
The first step leaders should take, Merlino said, is "put a stake in the ground" and acknowledge that safety, quality, patient experience and workforce engagement are connected. The second step is to leverage data across domains. Third is to tactically bring together best practices to address all dimensions of care.
On the ground, that can look like re-designing leadership rounding processes to not only focus on patients for experience, but also on safety and talking to caregivers about what's important to them.
One common element missing from developing strategies like this, Merlino said, is human resources. Another is senior leadership. Without buy-in or support from senior leaders, middle management has to drive culture efforts
Merlino stressed the importance of injecting a zero harm commitment into company culture.
A 2013 study in Journal of Patient Safety found as many as 440,000 people die every year from preventable errors made in hospitals. Medical errors, according to data cited in the white paper, are the third leading cause of death in the United States.
"When people in healthcare make mistakes, people can get hurt. In some cases, people die," Merlino said. "We need our people to be at the top of their game every single day."