The Joint Commission has published a document that speaks to every area of

The Joint Commission has published a document that speaks to every area of patient experience, from admitting to discharge, with a focus on PFCC (The Joint Commission (TJC), 2014). In this publication is a table that gives a timeline, starting with a gap analysis in 2003, continuing on to a program in 2010 to help aid hospitals in creating PFCC for very diverse populations. As TJC is one of only three agencies that provide accreditation for hospitals in the United States, hospitals need to sit up and pay attention to the standards they set (Mosby’s Suite, 2 010). The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), one of the largest payers for healthcare, also state the importance of PFCC by launching a program to “listen to the voices of the patients” (CMS.gov, 2014). Strategy to Improve Patient-Centeredness The domain of Advisors is a good place to start implementing PFCC. Our community is our patients and their families. The strategy identified is to have six former patients or family

C158 – ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP - TASK 1 7 representatives speak at the patient satisfaction committee meeting. Identification of potential participants could come from discharge phone calls, a patient satisfaction tool already in place. By asking three patients who had good experiences and three patients who had poor experiences to speak at the patient satisfaction meeting, real time data could be obtained about what is going right or wrong. The patient satisfaction committee would reap a great benefit in understanding what makes a patient satisfied or unsatisfied. It is important to remember that the goals of the patient satisfaction committee should align with the goal of our community. What the community feels is important needs to be the focus. Financial Implications The financial implications of such a change would not be a heavy burden. The addition of six speakers to the patient satisfaction committee would add some time to each meeting. There is a possibility of overtime during the planning process. The leaders of the patient satisfaction team are salaried employees, as are the Risk Management and the Quality Improvement staff. The front line staff that serve on the patient satisfaction committee have four hours per week available for participation that would be at regular time rather than overtime. The return on investment (the aligning of the community and hospital priorities), has the potential to increase patient satisfaction scores, which in turn would increase reimbursements. Multidisciplinary Team Members for the multidisciplinary team would include a representative of Risk Management, a representative of Quality Improvement, a representative of Medical Staff (a physician), and two members from the patient satisfaction committee (front line staff). The team would meet first to plan and implement change to the committee meetings to include the speakers. Part of this process would be to develop a presentation for the patient satisfaction