When an organization creates a quality and safety program, it can either design a narrow approach to risk management or develop practices that focus on building trust to enhance patient experience, create loyalty and minimize negative impact when adverse events do occur.
William A. Nelson, PhD, HFACHE, associate professor, Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, tells us, “Building trust certainly can enhance the patient experience.” But how do we go about building trust with patients? The article “Growing Your Trust Equity” offers seven strategies to consider:
- Initiate patient conversations about treatment options and encourage shared decision making.
- Encourage patients to speak up about concerns regarding care treatment concerns, with no fear of backlash on future treatment.
- Invest in communication peer coaching for the medical staff to ready them to talk to patients.
- Encourage medical staff physicians and liability insurers to plan jointly for patient conversations in the aftermath of adverse events.
- Create teaching video tools for the medical staff with patients who are willing to share their stories.
- Develop a sense of ownership over how your system responds to patients who have experienced unintended clinical outcomes.
Forget the traditional wisdom that honesty isn’t the best policy when dealing with medical mistakes.
As healthcare leaders develop their quality and safety programs, it’s important to remember that communication leads to trust and trust leads to loyalty. Read the full article “Growing Your Trust Equity.”
Congress Watch Box
Watch here for related sessions coming up at the
ACHE Congress on Healthcare Leadership, March 4-7, 2019.
- Executives’ Ethical Responsibility to Society and Community, with William Nelson, PhD, HFACHE, professor, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College; and Craig R. Wrestling, director of education, Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth College; and doctoral student Lauren Taylor, Harvard Business School
- Transforming the Narrative Around Mental Health, with John W. Boyd, PsD, CEO, System Mental Health Services Sutter Health
- Developing the Infrastructure to Support Improved Patient Experience: Responsibilities of the Chief Patient Experience Officer, with William R. Breen, ScD, FACHE, senior vice president, physician alignment, Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare; and Pradeep S. B. Podila, PhD, FACHE, experienced decision support data specialist
- Carilion Clinic’s Patient-Centric Approach to Increasing Care Access, with Erin F. Bartley, managing director, Huron Consulting Group; Tom Miller, RN, senior director, practice operations, Carilion Clinic; and Peter J. Gernert-Dott, PhD, senior director, Huron Consulting Group
- Driving Physician Engagement in Patient Quality, Safety and Experience Through Peer Review Transformation, with Luis Fonseca, FACHE, COO, Alameda Health System; and Tanvir Hussain, vice president, quality and patient safety, Alameda Health System
- A Strategic Tool to Improve Operation Performance, Cost and Patient Care, with Dipti Patel-Misra, PhD, chief data and analytics officer, MedAmerica Data Services; and Joshua Tamayo-Sarver, MD, PhD, vice president, informatics, Vituity
