At the Hospital Leadership Summit, 2017, an idea that found favour among all C-suite hospital executives was the top-down approach to creating great patient experience. Explored in detail was the CEO’s role. Dr. Kevin Lofton, CEO of Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) and keynote speaker at the event, spoke about his experience spearheading the change in culture at CHI and lessons learnt along the way. According to him, the CEO is uniquely positioned to influence the patient experience of a healthcare organisation. Daljit Singh, President of Fortis Healthcare, succinctly described patient experience as the summation of all the interactions in a hospital that influence the perception of the patient during the patient’s journey.

The CEO has an overarching role in any organisation, but even more so in a hospital. In a hospital setting, it’s the CEOs that set and follow standards for operational excellence; responsibilities extend to implementing clinical procedure and policy, safeguarding compliance to regulations and ensuring strong financial performance. Dr. Lofton pointed out that, “The CEO is the only one held accountable for the performance and results of the company - according to not just its own goals, but also the measures and standards of diverse and often competing external stakeholders.” He explained why CEOs, especially, need to be conscious of the patient experience in their hospitals.

Why is patient experience important?

Dr. Lofton pointed out the ‘external role’ of the CEO - acting as the link between the hospital and society, economy, technology, markets and customers. Fluctuations in any of the above can affect the functioning of the healthcare organisation. Beyond these are the disruptors that can significantly change the course of entire industries; notable examples mentioned were companies such as Uber, Netflix, Apple etc. and the technologies they pioneered. In the face of so many variables, he said, “Patient experience is going to be the differentiator in our success and our inability to succeed in the future.”

Apart from market resilience, patient experience also confers other benefits. For starters, it brings about optimal health outcomes as patient satisfaction leads to reduced patient anxiety and, thus, better cooperation. This, in turn, leads to increased patient loyalty and more referrals. Patient experience, thus, makes for a powerful growth strategy and is ultimately profitable.

What can be done to improve patient experience?

Patient experience often gets relegated to mere lip service in the Indian healthcare industry, which is largely doctor-centric in its outlook. CEOs can restore balance by championing the culture of patient experience and treating every employee as a stakeholder. Culture building can start with:

  • Prioritising patient experience as much as financial and clinical performance: Explicitly stating the importance of patient experience in your hospital is the first step towards a strong culture that every employee is aligned with. Cleveland Clinic initially faced scepticism from its doctors who were afraid that increasing focus on patient experience will prove distracting to clinical practitioners. Nonetheless, all employees were divided in groups and made to interact with assorted fellow caregivers to eliminate the divide between doctors and the rest of the staff. The exercise, which cost $11 million, proved to be eye opening for everyone. CHI Mercy released a video emphasising the importance of each role in delivering exceptional patient care.
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  • Encouraging communication: Increased communication is essential for deconstructing silos, clinical as well as administrative, that form in hospital settings. Better communication, moreover, smoothens workflows and leads to a more cohesive patient experience.
  • Interacting with the front line: The hospital staff on the ground - doctors, nurses, technicians etc. - are better clued int where the inefficiencies lie and where common grievances arise. They can provide crucial perspective on what’s working well, what’s not and what could be improved. Leadership rounding is emerging as an effective practice that healthcare leaders use to improve their visibility on the frontlines, assert their support to on-ground staff, improve staff recognition and more.
  • Walking the talk: Setting an example goes a long way toward motivating healthcare staff. Dr. Lofton stressed that patient experience must be important for the CEO first, for it to reflect across all levels of the organisation. A CEO that appears committed to the cause is more likely to rally employees to work towards much-needed change. Dr. Lofton embodies CHI’s founders’ commitment to reducing violence in communities and this reflects in CHI’s culture. For example, he has replaced bullet points with ‘dot points’ in his meetings and presentations, and nobody talks of ‘killing the competition’. 

Personal qualities and outlook

Dr. Lofton also talked about the role of leadership in sustaining an organisation’s culture. He cited a CEO’s self-awareness and willingness to change, and engage, to be the most important leadership qualities at a time of increasing disruption across industries. According to him, self-awareness is essential for CEOs to recognise the need for change before disruptors change the entire paradigm. He encouraged the audience to ultimately look at patient loyalty as the destination, the journey to which must be led by the CEO.

Dr. Lofton stressed on the aspirational nature of the journey. “People want to follow leaders who are aspirational, and we should be willing to step up and make the hard decisions, but at the same time give our employees a reason to follow us,” he said. He concluded his session by quoting some lines from Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech. Talking about the genuine passion reflected in the speech, he pointed out to the audience that it begins with “I have a dream” and not “I have a plan”.