The board of a large community-owned health system wanted to understand why its numerous attempts to improve the patient experience had failed to move the needle on lower-than- average HCAHPS. Recognizing the need for urgency and progress, they engaged us to audit their patient experience efforts and develop a strategy to get their scores “unstuck.”

We immediately launched an assessment, survey and listening tour to unlock the voices of the system’s 14,000 employees. It became clear that poor alignment around patient experience, lack of behavioral standards and accountability—and seemingly ever-changing priorities—were causing apathy and confusion.

Based on gap analysis findings and employee feedback, a Patient Experience Steering Committee was commissioned to partner with us to develop a strategy focused on creating a catalyst, alignment of leadership and employees around a shared vision and the deployment of best practices. Given the level of initiative fatigue, it was important that this not feel like another initiative or task.

With one shot to get it right, we leveraged mountains of employee feedback to develop a Promise, or shared vision, for the type of experience patients and employees should be able to expect.

With the Promise as a rallying cry, we launched a highly-coordinated campaign to elevate patient experience, empower and equip the system’s 1300+ leaders, introduce and hardwire a behavioral framework, redesign orientation to focus on culture and increase recognition and coaching across the system.

This tailored approach succeeded because employees heard their own voices in the shared vision and were reconnected to the system’s mission, its leadership and to their personal passion for caregiving. Benefits were immediate. Confidence in leadership increased, the recognition gap decreased and patient experience scores improved. A priority and motivator for leadership and employees, this work has inspired the mantra, “It’s not about doing more, it’s about being more.”