How to Improve the Patient Experience

How to Improve the Patient Experience is a complement to Ed Marx and Cris Ross's book, Diagnosed, which arose from their experiences as patients and as leaders driving change in healthcare. As patients, Ed had a near-fatal heart attack and prostate cancer. Cris was treated twice for stage 3 colorectal cancer. They were executives in two of the best hospitals in America when they became sick. Being in a hospital bed taught them things they never learned being around hospital beds. 

This white paper presents ideas from a broader spectrum of healthcare systems than those with which insiders are most familiar. The authors conducted numerous focus groups across the country, including colleagues from small hospitals, multi-specialty clinics, and home care. They also talked to colleagues at medium-sized systems with two to three hospitals that are typically unaffiliated, and at large hospitals that are part of major health systems or academic medical centers, and they listened to their executive suite peers’ input. Additionally, they conducted focus groups with patients. 
 
In their forthcoming book, they combined what they learned from others and what they experienced themselves  to share their best insights with fellow patients. In this white paper, they offer their best insights for healthcare professionals, including clinical and administrative staff members.    
There are four broad areas of focus that Marx and Ross believe will benefit from new thinking and renewed action and that can help improve patient experience (while also letting people working in the healthcare system do all the other things they need to do):

1. Empower patients and foster resilience in patients.
2. Provide all aspects of healthcare as part of an integrated entity, not a disjointed process. The key is to create a patient-centered culture providing patient-centric services.
3. Create and sustain an empathetic organization.
4. Digitize the organization to support the transformation. 

Healthcare is an imperfect, yet ever-improving, system full of well-intentioned people and institutions. In this concise, direct, and ultimately hopeful call-to-action, Ross and Marx give healthcare professionals the insights and tools they need to reform current models and implement lasting changes for better health outcomes.