Engage!

To say that technology has changed – is changing – how healthcare is delivered is an understatement. The Gartner Group estimates that worldwide, hospital IT spending will grow by 2.8 percent this year from its $3.7 trillion 2018 level.

Adequately preparing a hospital patient to transition to care at home is one of the most important deterrents to hospital readmissions. Alarmingly, HCAHPS scores for care transition and discharge planning often fall among the lowest of all HCAHPS ratings.

A Beryl Institute study of 2,000 consumers uncovered some insight into the importance patients put on their patient care experience. A staggering nine out of ten respondents said their patient experience is somewhat or very important to them, but why? They believe that a good experience contributes to their healing and health outcomes.

Poor nurse retention has plagued the hospital industry for many decades. As the years pass, the concern of retention remains costly and harmful to hospitals and patients alike. At a national average RN turnover rate of 17.1% year after year, healthcare holds the dubious distinction for having one of the highest turnover rates among all industries.

Hospitals are losing nurses at an alarming rate. In fact, it’s been estimated that 33.5% of new RNs leave the bedside within the first two years.  All of that turnover can affect patient care and satisfaction, and has a significant impact on a hospital’s operating expenses. The average cost of turnover for just one bedside RN ranges from $37,700 to $58,400. A recent Healthcare RN Retention study found that each percent increase in RN turnover costs the average hospital $373,200.

To say that nursing is a stressful career is not news. As far back as 15 years ago, nursing was ranked as the fourth most-stressful job in the country, with high turnover rates to prove it.

Each year in the U.S., serious preventable medication errors occur in 3.8 million inpatient admissions, according to the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation. In fact, according to Leapfrog Group, on average, one medication error occurs per patient per day.

As hospitals look for ways to intersect people, processes and technology to improve outcomes, patient satisfaction and revenue, chief experience officers and, more recently, hospital docents (skilled volunteers) are playing that key role.

Everyone’s talking about it. What is the “it”? The “it” is how do we, as hospitals, improve our patients’ experience. How do we take a stressful, sometimes emotional, often confusing stay in a hospital and turn all of those adjectives into positives? There’s no single answer to that question, as evidenced by the many sessions devoted to patient experience at this week’s HIMSS conference.

It’s a new year, and with that comes the obligatory lists … you know, the best of, the predictions, the top trends. So what’s trending in healthcare? Underlying all the predictions is a sure continuation of the industry’s drive to a more consumer-driven, patient-centric model.