Effective Communication: Essential in Everything We Do
by Jerry Stone
When MedicalGPS published our Telephone Service Improvement Program, one of the critical success factors included effectively communicating the findings and preliminary recommendations for service improvement to physicians and other organization decision makers. An excerpt from the tutorial reads,
"Effective communication is so basic and fundamental to everything we do, it cannot be emphasized too much. Because communication is so often ‘assumed’ and consequently, not practiced effectively, it is not an overstatement to say effective communication is THE essential ingredient…" |
While that particular statement was written relative to improving telephone customer service, it seems to be universally applicable to everything we do. For example, a recent article published in USA Today was focused on how well providers communicate with their patients. The USA Today article went on to describe a new standard set of patient satisfaction data known as the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems, which will be posted online by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services next year. Relative to the CMS’ posting of that data, the article reads:
"The data will widely reflect hospitals' performance when it comes to doctor/patient communication, and the assessment will standardize the reporting criteria across the nation." [bolding added for emphasis] "During this hospital stay, how often did doctors listen carefully to you?" the survey asks. "How often did doctors explain things in a way you could understand?" "The new standardized data, which will be available to the general public at hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, can help patients make more informed health care decisions, says Melvin Hall, chief executive of Press Ganey Associates, a health care performance measurement company. "Patients will now have the opportunity to vote with their feet, which is to say, 'This hospital is not meeting my needs. Therefore, I'm going to go somewhere else." Click here to read the entire USA Today article. |
Understanding the patient’s expectations and proactively exceeding their expectations is part of the reason M3-Patient Experience is so effective. If we can help you and your organization effectively and efficiently gather patient feedback, please feel free to contact us on-line at MedicalGPS, or if you would like to talk with us, please feel free to call us direct at (615) 467-6338.