Jog a Mile in Our Patients’ Shoes

We already give our patients exceptional care. Now we vow to do even better.

One by one they spoke. Patients and family members who received our care addressed a group of nearly 150 colleagues at Lehigh Carbon Community College last May. They didn’t tell us what we wanted to hear. They told us what we needed to hear.

The people who spoke at our May retreat, called “A Journey of Growth (JOG),” inspired and moved us. They told us what it’s really like to be a patient. One person summed it up like this: “The patients’ thoughts, desires and needs must stay at the center of everything.”

You might be thinking you already do that. And you’re right—to a point. For the past decade, we’ve embraced our own model of patient-centered care. We changed the way we deliver care by giving our caregivers the ability to spend more time at the bedside.

Our patient-centered care model is, by all counts, a success. Our patient satisfaction scores are regularly in the 90s. Our caregivers enjoy the work they do here. Our nurses are among the nation’s best, a vital part of our redesignated Magnet hospital. Our support staff works diligently behind the scenes to ensure ideal experiences for patients and families.

Still, we can do better. Not all of the patients who spoke to us last May had a positive experience. As they reminded us, we can always listen more intently, communicate better and do more. So we relied on them to help us. They sat with our colleagues and helped us create the basis for what we’re calling the Patient-Centered Experience 2016 (PCE 2016).

Last month, more than 400 department heads and midlevel managers gathered at LVH–Muhlenberg for the second phase of JOG. They brainstormed more than 2,800 ideas on how to make PCE 2016 come to life. Each attendee signed a scroll with eight dimensions of care that we need to follow to create an ideal patient experience. From those eight dimensions come 39 vision statements that vow to make our care even better. (Read them on the intranet at www.lvh.com under “What’s New.”)

To make PCE 2016 a reality, all of us need to hold true to the eight dimensions of care. We must improve access so we can give care to all who need it in our ever-growing community. We must communicate with our patients accurately so they get the most updated information about their conditions. We must ensure continuity of care so a patient understands what it means when he’s transferred to a different part of the hospital.

We must respect the values, preferences and needs of each patient. We must make our care well coordinated so patients know whom to turn to for help. We must provide physical care, comfort and emotional support in all situations. And we must make sure family members and friends are involved in each patient’s care.

With your expertise, wisdom and guidance, we can meet all of these challenges and raise our level of care. I encourage you to be open to new ideas, join teams that implement ideas and to let your voice be heard. Whether or not you’re a bedside caregiver, the work you do plays a vital role in making sure our patients’ hospital experiences are ideal. Thank you for helping to shape the future of care.

Lou Liebhaber, Chief Operating Officer

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