Background
As Colorado's largest healthcare system, we identified an opportunity to move HCAHPS — patient surveys that drive annual Medicare reimbursements — into the 90th percentile. Our goal: establishing a unified care approach that maximizes patient outcomes, improves experience scores, and expands access for more Colorado residents.
What is HCAHPS?
We created the Experience Framework - Set, Meet, Own - as a way to manage expectations for our patients and staff. We focused on how we Set Expectations for patients and each other, how we Meet Expectations, and how we Own It. We also found that when we don't Set proper expectations, others will often create expectations of their own.
Approach
The first priority was to understand the needs and goals from the end-users that were impacted the most - our patients and their families. We recruited staff and patients that could provide powerful and thoughtful perspectives, allowing us to build stakeholder maps and identify key contributors.
What elements impacted our staff and their ability to meet user needs, and could we find common themes from our most satisfied users to our most dissatisfied users? We developed journey maps, collaborated on building insights and actions, and shadowed staff to fully comprehend these perspectives. Together, we achieved:
5000+ Patient Rounds
100+ Design Sessions
100+ Staff Interviews
15,000+ Patient Surveys Reviewed
Why focus on experience?
Research shows that experience in healthcare ultimately influences patient outcomes - the better the experience, usually the better the outcome. Data supported the idea that positive experiences can result in fewer mortality rates, a decrease in re-admissions, and increased health-seeking behaviors, like exercise or other preventative services.
North Star & Strategy
We found with our patients that no matter what the circumstances of hospital visits, many if not all experience a level of fear & anxiety throughout their patient journey. These emotions come from instances like first-time visits, traumatizing experiences, and other powerful moments that matter.
Our goal become crystal clear
How might we use experience to help mitigate fear and anxiety for our patients and our staff?
Collaboration
We partnered with other healthcare organizations around Colorado such as Advent, Denver Health, and Kaiser, to understand how they navigate this landscape for our patients. Through our connections, we also found a unique partnership with Delta Airlines and how they examined fear & anxiety at every step of the flyer's journey.
So we did just that — we committed ourselves to following every touch point of the patient journey, from the moment patients are seeking healthcare, to the moment they go home and beyond. Delta Airlines used this approach to ensure their flyers had a smooth and reassuring travel experience.
The Experience Framework was born
Fear & anxiety can come from numerous things, often from moments of uncertainty, unfamiliar environments, and unconditional trust in strangers. By establishing a framework that can address some of these concerns, we can set best practices inside and outside the healthcare space by consistently setting realistic expectations, meeting them, and allowing everyone to feel a sense of empowerment and partnership.
Conclusion - Results, Deployment, and Learning
Set, Meet, Own was then transformed into a training kit that was deployed across the organization, impacting 14 hospitals and over 200 clinics. This was supported by design sessions and workshops to implement the framework and build resources around specific teams, structures, and dynamics.
We understood that each hospital and region would serve different demographics and patient populations, so we adapted. Set, Meet, Own would become a foundation on approaching these different challenges and be supported by our Experience team to build resources together.
Hospital that recieved Set, Meet, Own training saw an 8-10% increase in patient satisfaction scores.
Scores to measure medication communication and responsiveness improved to 75%.
The Experience Framework reached 19,000 employees within the first month of deployment.
Continued Opportunities
To implement the Experience Framework is to change the culture surrounding the current state of the organization. The change brings a level of scripting and scenario based training that is not always applicable to every staff member, inviting some resistance to new policies. Despite this, we were able to continue working with these teams and design tools around their needs to address any and all concerns.
As an ongoing initiative, the Experience Framework continues to be a source of truth and resources that support our patients and our staff. As we focus on deploying this to our 33,000+ employees, we thought it best to create a Resource Hub that contained all our resources, research, and training assets, which you'll find as the following case study.
