Page 13 - Christiana Care Focus April 2019

To come
Serving together – Creating memorable experiences
for our patients and each other
New
When we serve together, our patients notice.
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“I felt like my every need was anticipated.”
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“Great teamwork! The person conducting my test was called away. I heard someone else offer to step in — so that I would not have to wait.”
“There is a real family atmosphere — a team atmosphere — that makes it work.”
I am proud to share these patient comments with you, and to report that I receive compliments like this about you, our extraordinary caregivers, every day.
When we serve together, we fulfill our mission as expert, respectful partners in our patients’ health.
At its essence, serving together means demonstrating our values of Excellence and Love and our behaviors in action — every patient, every time.
What do patients value?
Patients and their families value teamwork from their caregivers so much that it continually shows up in patient letters, comments and feedback.
Our patients receive a survey about the care we provide that asks about “how well staff worked together to care for you.” The ratings patients may give are very poor, poor, fair, good and very good. Our goal is “very good” every time.
At Christiana Care, we value teamwork so much that the Serving Together measure is part of our Caregiver Rewards Program.
Our FY 2019 target is for patients to rate us “very good” 78 percent of the time on our patient experience surveys, across all care settings and service lines. Our Serving Together progress is on the AOP Dashboard on the portal.
We are hovering around our target, but we still have work to do.
Why is serving together important?
A careful evaluation of our experience data and performance indicates that patient perception of teamwork is a top driver of the patient experience across all settings — and a positive patient experience is tied to safer, higher quality health outcomes.
When we collaborate and work together as a team to care for our patients, they have a clearer understanding of their plan of care,
By To come
By Mike Puchtler, Vice President of Patient Experience
| The Christiana Care Way
believe their care is well coordinated, and have a higher degree of trust in the care we provide.
When we do not serve together by not
coordinating care; anticipating the needs
of our patients, their families and one
another; or by not accepting responsibility
for our attitudes and actions, we lose an
opportunity — perhaps permanently — to
be partners in our patients’ journey to optimal health.
Consider what some patients have said when they feel we’ve missed our goal:
“Staff did not communicate to each other about what tests were run on my son and couldn’t figure out what needed to be done.”
“The [staff] at the desk plainly did not get along with each other. As I approached the desk, it was apparent as each waited for the other to take care of me.”
“The waiting time was terrible. If someone had kept us informed about complications that day, I would have been less annoyed.”
Five ways to demonstrate Serving Together
Every caregiver — clinical and non-clinical — has the opportunity to create a memorable experience grounded in teamwork and our mission of service at every touchpoint. Here are five ways you can create these memorable experiences today.
1. Refertoassociatedcaregiversbynameanduse“we”inthe conversation.
2. Refertoyourfellowcaregiversinapositivemanner.“We work together in your care, so I’ll have Sam get back with you tomorrow. He’ll know just how to help.”
3. Informthepatientofwhat’snext,includingapproximatetimes for tests, procedures and appointments.
4. Usekeyphrases:“Weworkasateam.”“I’mheretohelpyour nurse.” “I’m here helping your patient care tech.”
5. Proactivelyfollowupwithstakeholders—patients,families, your colleagues — to provide updates.
To support you and your team, Patient Experience has developed a resource guide with meeting starters, team activities, tips
and techniques. For a copy, contact Natalie Dyke at ndyke@ christianacare.org or 302-733-1379.
When patients see teamwork as “a well-oiled machine,” we know we are serving together with Excellence and Love. 
FOCUS • APRIL 2019 11