Service

• Pairing a nurse with a buddy to help with patient response
• Designating backups to the buddies
• Communicating with the appropriate nurse the patient’s needs

What can your team do to allocate staff time and attention effectively and strategically? 

• Coordinating with other departments, like emergency and transportation
• Spreading out requests in regular 15-minute intervals
• Meeting regularly to make adjustments

 What can your team do to work with other departments to improve patients' experiences? 

• Correcting wrong numbers in the Patient Member Handbook
• Handling calls directly instead of routing to call center, adding voice mail and returning messages hourly
• Wearing wireless headsets to take calls remotely

What can your team do to look at its work through the eyes of the patient? 

• Instituting a regular nap time, testing both 1-3 p.m. and 2-4 p.m. slots
• Communicating to staff and families about nap time, to be quiet and posting alerts
• Coordinating with other departments to see if adjustments to time period are needed

What can your team do to try out different potiential solutions without being afraid of failure? 

• Standardizing pain medication schedules, and include follow-up calls after discharge
• Reassessing patient and communicating with her when next med is scheduled
• Reinforcing the idea that “every patient is my patient” and have "no-pass" policy

What can your team do to to put the patient at the center? 

• Posting laminated cards at med stations of commonly used drugs and where these are regulary stored
• Delivering drugs 15 minutes prior to adminstration to allow time to be prepared
• Color-coding bins of new meds to distinguish from a patient’s discontinued meds

What can your team do to plan ahead and prepare in advance to anticipate patient needs?

• Including Mrs. Dash seasoning packets with meals
• Writing scripts for personnel to educate patients
• Getting informed on all diet options

What can your team do to look at a hospital stay through the eyes of a patient? 

• Sharing scheduling data with collaborative departments
• Setting boundaries to respect the other department’s needs and processes, like avoiding late-day appointments
• Writing it down and gettng consensus so everyone can follow the procedure

What can your team do to work collaboratively with a sister department to improve the patient experience?