What Defines the Patient Experience

I read this article In Health Leaders Media that sounds like it could have been written by one of our team with our complete care philosophy in mind.

The patient experience is not an isolated event. Rather, it is the sum of all interactions, shaped by an organization's culture, that influence patient perceptions across the continuum of care. There is no silver bullet or checklist to follow. Instead, the patient experience is comprised of every impression and encounter a patient (or family member) has with your health system. Whether it's making a phone call for additional information, scheduling an appointment, or whether your website is easy to navigate, every interaction impacts patient perception.

Building relationships with patients is the single most important thing hospitals Health Care Providers can do to make a lasting change in the delivery of care. When the focus is on building a relationship with every patient, every time, there is better communication, better compliance, better coordination of care, and better outcomes.

As I've said before, everyone in our organization has the ability to make a difference in the lives of our members.  Time to lead where you stand and help ensure our continuum of care continues to produce positive patient care experiences.

You can read the whole article here.

If You Can, Where You Can... Walk

George Halvorson's "Be Well" email on October 7th including a script from a video on the Benefits of Walking.  I liked it so much that I'm posting the whole text of the video script here.  George also posed a challenge to the readers "Please consider reading the actual script at the end of this letter out loud to a friend, a family member, a coworker, a colleague, or a neighbor. Read it to them, and then ask for a reaction."  In the email sent out today, he shares some of the responses he received.  If you come back to George's CEO website in about a week, you'll see the lastest one posted. 

The “Benefits Of Walking” Video Script

The human body is made to walk.

Our bodies function better when we walk. We are healthier in many ways when we walk.

Walking 30 minutes a day cuts the rate of people becoming diabetic by more than half — and it cuts the risk of people over 60 becoming diabetic by almost 70 percent.

Walking cuts the risk of stroke by more than 25 percent.

Walking reduces hypertension. The body has over 100,000 miles of blood vessels. Those blood vessels are more supple and healthier when we walk.

Walking cuts the risk of cancer as well as diabetes and stroke.

Women who walk have a 20 percent lower likelihood of getting breast cancer and a 31 percent lower risk of getting colon cancer.

Women with breast cancer who walk regularly can reduce their recurrence rate and their mortality rate by over 50 percent.

The human body works better when we walk. The body resists diseases better when we walk, and the body heals faster when we walk.

We don’t have to walk a lot. Thirty minutes a day has a huge impact on our health.

Men who walk thirty minutes a day have a significantly lower level of prostate cancer. Men who walk regularly have a 60 percent lower risk of colon cancer.

For men with prostate cancer, studies have shown that walkers have a 46 percent lower mortality rate.

Walking also helps prevent depression, and people who walk regularly are more likely to see improvements in their depression. In one study, people who walked and took medication scored twice as well in 30 days as the women who only took the medication. Another study showed that depressed people who walked regularly had a significantly higher level of not being depressed in a year compared to depressed people who did not walk. The body generates endorphins when we walk. Endorphins help us feel good.

Walking strengthens the heart. Walking strengthens bones. Walking improves the circulatory system.

Walking generates positive neurochemicals. Healthy eating is important — but dieting can trigger negative neurochemicals and can be hard to do.

Walking generates positive neurochemicals. People look forward to walking and enjoy walking.

And research shows that fit beats fat for many people. Walking half an hour a day has health benefits that exceed the benefits of losing 20 pounds.

When we walk every day, our bodies are healthier and stronger. A single 30 minute walk can reduce blood pressure by five points for over 20 hours.

Walking reduces the risk of blood clots in your legs.

People who walk regularly have much lower risk of deep vein thrombosis.

People who walk are less likely to catch colds, and when people get colds, walkers have a 46 percent shorter symptom time from their colds.

Walking improves the health of our blood, as well. Walking is a good boost of high density cholesterol — and people with high levels of HDL are less likely to have heart attacks and stroke.

Walking speeds up metabolism and burns calories. Walkers often find that eating habits change and weight loss results from those eating changes.

Walking significantly diminishes the risk of hip fracture — and the need for gallstone surgery is 20 to 31 percent lower for walkers.

Walking is the right thing to do.

The body needs to walk.

We don’t need to walk a lot — 30 minutes a day makes the body work better.

The best news is that the 30 minutes doesn’t have to be done in one lump of time. Two 15 minute walks achieve the same goals. Three 10 minute walks achieve most of those goals.

We can walk 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes at night and achieve our walking goals.

Walking feels good. It helps the body heal. It keeps the body healthy. It improves our biological health, our physical health, our psychosocial health, and helps with our emotional health. Walking can literally add years — entire years — to your life.

It’s good to walk.

Be good to yourself.

Be good to your body.

If you can — where you can — walk.

Everybody.

Walk.

Be well.

George

How To Start a Movement

During a meeting with some representatives from Community Partners to discuss how we can implment KP's Proactive Encounter program in to local community clinics, I went over the backgroud of POE; why it was created, how it was developed, how it was spread across the region, and how it has evolved over time. In turn, they shared with me a video link(Leadership - How To Start A Movement - Derek Sivers) that I want to share with you.

Some thoughts that struck me from this video...

• It's important to nuture your followers as equals
• Leadership is overglorified - it is really the first follower that transformed the lone nut into a leader
• Have the courage to follow and show others how to follow
• Have the guts to stand up and join in

Defining Patient Engagement

I was reading a blog this morning that discussed patient engagement and how the definition of patient engagement may differ between provider and patient.  The article says about patient engagement, "It is the key to patient adherence – a prerequisite to achieving better outcomes, fewer ER visits and hospitalizations and more satisfied patients." Health Care providers would probably say a patient is engaged in their health care when they do what their doctor says, take their medications as directed, maintains an active lifestyle and healthy diet.  But, as this article shared, "People can be engaged in their own health and never see a doctor, visit a hospital, or take a prescription medication."

The point is that we as health care professionals need to start looking at things like the definition of health, health goals, compliance, and outcomes from the patient’s perspective.  We need to incorporate the patient’s perspective into outcome and satisfaction measures.   Only then do we have the right to “judge” whether a person (aka patient) is engaged, activated, or empowered.   Once the health industry gets past this paternalistic, “we know better than you do” attitude then we can expect to see real change in health behavior and outcomes.

Patient engagement is the holy grail of health care

by Steve Wilkins, MPH

Telling Our Story

I have worked for Kaiser for over 20 years now and have been a KP Member for 31 years.  I can say in all honestly we haven't always done a great job of telling OUR KP story and, to be quite frank, there were times when we didn't have a great story to tell.  I believe stories are the most effective vehicle to drive the heart of a message to the heart of an audience.  A good story will inspire people to action or conjure up an emotional connection that leaves a lasting impression on the listener.  I'm so proud to say the tides have turned and not only do we have one hell of an amazing story to tell, we are learning how to tell it. 

Kaiser Permanente not only tells our story from on organizational and marketing perspective, like through our Thrive ads, but we have engaged patient's to share THEIR KP story on our new KP CARE STORIES video blog.  In about a month or so, we will start showing videos in our waiting rooms that have our patient's, like Dale Gordon and Mary Gonzales, sharing their stories.  Think about someone waiting in the pharmacy to pick up their prescription, holding on to this colon cancer screening kit their doctors medical assistant just gave them.  The dread of having to "scoop some poop" to complete the test or even the thought of just tossing the kit out "because there is no way I'm going to scoop poop" may be weighing on their minds and then... a video of Dale Gordon telling his emotional story of how that one little (admittedly uncomfortable) test saved his life.  That patient goes home determined to complete the test. Now that is a power of story persuasion.

This morning, I read an Ideabook blog by Tim Ho that "drove the heart of message to the heart of an audience".  Tim's blog yanked on my heart strings and filled me with pride for the company we work for, the great people who come together to care for our members, and for the lives we save.  Here's a quote from Tim's blog that I hope will make you curious enough to subscribe to his blog like I do!

"That's funny," I thought, "I didn't know that this patient had colon cancer."  I opened his chart and went on a journey to find out what happened.  I'd like to share my journey with you and hope that it helps you understand why we are here at Kaiser Permanente and why we can do more together in this crazy, complex system than we can ever do on our own. 

Thanks Tim for taking the time to share your daily blogs.  KP should be honored to have you here to help share our story.