While I was not able to attend last month’s e-patient conference in Philadelphia, I was able to watch some of the sessions online. One of talks that garnered the most feedback was a talk by Harris Rosen, the head of Rosen Hotel group, based in Orlando, Florida. Most of his talk click here revolved around his philosophy regarding employer self-funded healthcare (including his insistence that his employees stay nicotine free). However, the part of the talk that really spoke to me was his observations regarding hospitals and patient experience (around 41:30 in the talk). Rosen is toying with the idea of opening a hospital modeled after a hotel. Check-in would be like a hotel, patients can wear their own PJ’s, rooms would have Murphy beds for family staying over, pets would be allowed, and there would be 24 hour room service. Rosen feels that he can provide a luxury stay at a cost effective price because his company has a large infrastructure in place including finance and purchasing.
While some of his ideas would be hard to implement, (pets in a hospital?), some do have merit. I applaud his vision of treating patients as guests (and employees as family), rather than the objects they are now. Patients seek healthcare when they are most vulnerable, yet we tolerate a dehumanizing healthcare system. Yes, there are reasons private destination hospitals tend to lead the way in patient comfort. They have to give families confidence to entrust their love one’s care to them instead of a local (and often less costly) institution. But there is no reason that public and non-profit hospitals can’t create a culture of kindness and humanity, even within their limited resources. Just ask any worker in any hospital. They can and will give you great ideas on how to improve their patients’ experience.
We know the winds are changing. One of the metrics that Medicare will be using in their Value Based Purchasing reimbursement (planned start – October 2012), is how satisfied patients are with their experience of care at a hospital. It will take time, dedication, leadership, patience (lots of patience) and ongoing commitment to change our current healthcare culture to meet this new emphasis of patient experience. While I do not advocate institutions remodel to look like the local Hampton Inn or Embassy Suites, they could take some examples from hotels on how to improve the customer experience in their product offering (free WiFi for example). Hospitals have a year before patient experience starts truly effecting their bottom line. They better start now.
Patching the Boat 