Interested in changing the culture of your practice? Most leaders know that starts from the top, but understanding how to get there can seem like going down a rabbit hole.
Last month, nationally known speaker and healthcare advisor Dotty Bollinger, RN, JD, CMPE addressed more than 60 members of the Nashville Medical Group Management Association about how to surpass patient care expectations. The registered nurse-turned-attorney serves as CEO of Integrity Healthcare Advisors in Gatlinburg, Tenn., and uses her extensive experience growing and leading multi-facility operations to foster an environment focused on the patient experience first.
“If you can convince leaders culture matters, everything else they desire will come from a mindset of a culture of care,” Bollinger said in an interview with Nashville Medical News. “My goal is to get folks to think about quality from the perspective of service. If we give great service start to finish, what results is consumers who walk away with ‘Wow!’ experiences.”
Become a Customer
A mistake Bollinger said she commonly sees is leaders who focus solely on CAHPS survey results – the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems reports collected and publicly posted by CMS. She encourages management to take a few steps back and look at the practice from the perspective of the customer – the patient. “Every practice manager needs to be a consumer of his or her own service,” she said.
While most CEOs can’t replicate the reality television show Undercover Boss type of investigating, they can throw on jeans and a t-shirt and sit in the waiting room as a casual observer. “Does it look like a bad day at the bus station?” Bollinger asked. Is it welcoming? Does it feel dirty, although it’s technically clean? Are magazines wrinkled? How are patients greeted, and what are processes like?
Small things start the experience as patients come through the door so Bollinger encourages all leaders to regularly schedule time to experience the office from a patient’s point of view – something, she said, a surprisingly few managers take the time to do.
Look Beyond Healthcare
As healthcare continues its evolution into a consumer-driven industry, Bollinger said she also encourages leaders to look to great service providers in highly regulated industries outside healthcare.
“Our providers and clinicians know what the efficiency fixes are in any practice, and often times we’re taking steps that aren’t really helping anybody,” she said of making administrative changes without truly consulting those impacted on the front lines. Bollinger encouraged employers to set up work groups where they focus on culture and identifying inefficiencies. “The concept is prevalent in business, but we’ve been a ‘top down’ industry in healthcare for 30-plus years,” she said. “Culturally we need to borrow practices from our business counterparts.”
For example, ask any physician assistant or medical tech what they do in a day that’s rework to them, and they’ll tell you things that will make employees’ lives easier – changes that will ultimately impact the patient experience, as well. Often times a fix is as simple as moving an inconveniently stored piece of equipment, which could save hundreds of steps a day for a staff member.
“You can’t change regulations and forms, but often times you can change what’s sucking the life out of their day,” she said. “If you’re allowing bad behavior or experiences, you’re never going to inspire staff. Leadership sets the bar.”
Differentiate Yourself
Employers also should take a step back and think about the service model they want to give consumers. How would great service differentiate their practice? How would it help from a marketing perspective?
Ultimately great service means better financial results as patients pursue follow-up appointments, the best employees are more easily retained, and the office is set apart as a great place to work. And, Bollinger pointed out, as every leader knows, it’s easier to take care of customers who are happy than to constantly be in recruitment and service recovery mode.
Linda ClenDening, FACMPE, recently named CEO of Premier Orthopaedics and president of the Nashville MGMA, said the talk was motivation to create stronger relationships with staff, and to lead by example.
“Dotty has a real in-depth knowledge of industry issues in regards to customers service, satisfaction and key indicator areas, but at the same time she gave us practical takeaways we could go back with and really think about how to improve customer services,” said ClenDening, who now hopes to implement patient focus groups at her own office. “It was a reminder to keep up the effort and to establish a rapport and collaborate with patients across a broader demographic reach.”
PHOTOS: Headshots of and (note the capitalization in ClenDening’s last name).
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