Ashley Eddings, MBA, SSGB

What if all organizations involved the voice of patients in the human experience and care delivery? What if patients felt empowered to play a pivotal role in the progression of an organization by sharing feedback and insights that are heard? Is it important or not so much? Consider this through the lens of consumer loyalty, employee engagement, and patient satisfaction to determine the answer to these questions. 

When looking at consumer loyalty, it is incumbent on organizations to know what drives loyalty. In healthcare, the consumers are patients.  As consumers, patients choose who will provide/direct their care and where to receive their care.  As patients become more savvy consumers, it takes more than a prestigious name to earn their loyalty.

Consider Cheney’s (2018) thoughts around gaining consumer loyalty: “Give every patient a voice. Maximize the volume and timeliness of feedback…” (para. 8). Once patients have a voice, they feel empowered in their care and experience. Giving patients a voice to express their feedback, recognition, concerns, and the like, conveys to them that the organization and its employees simply care. This undoubtedly sets a part the organizations who listen from the ones who do not. Continually hearing from patients allows organizations to pivot in the right direction in hopes of gaining loyalty as a result of this feedback.

What is the impact of the patients’ voice being heard at the bedside? Don’t underestimate the power of patient feedback on the care providers. In the face of burnout, staggering turnover rates, heavy workloads, and demanding work environments, it is necessary that nurses, physicians and other members of the care team feel valued and recognized for their extraordinary efforts.

It is critical to note ways in which organizations can hear the voice of the patient. Kommers (2019) raises an important point when she states that organizations need to “Make it easier for patients to share narratives…” (para. 4). It is imperative for organizations to find various avenues where patients can share feedback in a timely and thoughtful manner. It should never be enough to wait for surveys to come in; there needs to be ongoing feedback being shared to open much-needed dialogue between the organization and its patients.

Furthermore, Kommers (2019) prompted us to “Remember that narratives are their own form of evidence, even if they are not driven by data” (para. 5). When a patient shares their input, stories, and experiences, while it might not be clear-cut numerical data, it is still real-life, personal accounts that are indicative of what is going well and where the areas of opportunities lie. We must be careful to take these stories and connect them with the data to get the true picture of what is going on in an organization.

So, is the patient’s voice and feedback necessary and value-added? If we consider the results of consumer loyalty, a rise in employee engagement, and an increase in patient satisfaction, there is too much to lose if we think otherwise. Thus, the answer is a resounding yes.

Cheney, C. (2018, December 28). Patient experience five times as likely to drive consumer loyalty as marketing. Retrieved from https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/clinical-care/patient-experience-five-times-likely-drive-consumer-loyalty-marketing.

Kommers, A. (2019, July 9). Viewpoint: Patient narratives should be part of medical education. Retrieved from https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/patient-engagement/viewpoint-patient-narratives-should-be-part-of-medical-education.html.

Payne, S. (2017, May 19). 10 tips for boosting retention and performance in healthcare. Retrieved from https://whc.workhuman.com/healthcare-performance-lp.html.

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Dr. Bonnie Clipper, DNP, MA, MBA, RN, CENP, FACHE

Fall is a time of many conferences and events for nurses, physicians, and other clinicians. After reflecting on the many keynote speakers, panel discussions, break-out sessions, and shared stories that I have recently experienced, a common theme has emerged that validates much of what we hear about clinician burnout. This theme is a trend among nearly all organizations, inpatient, outpatient, large or small, academic or community-based. It is a sense of a lack of value and respect shown to clinicians (and often by colleagues towards each other) for their work in providing care. In conjunction with the conference information, the recent study on clinical wellbeing (NAM, 2019) has grabbed my attention due to the staggering statistics, including the fact that “between 35% – 54% of U.S. nurses and physicians have substantial symptoms of burnout” (NAM Study Highlights, 2019, para. 2). How is this good for clinicians or for patients for that matter?

Factors such as meaning and purpose in work, as well as organizational culture, are contributors to burnout (NAM, 2019) yet not impossible to positively impact. Hard – yes, impossible – no. The good news is that with some work, these factors can be changed. Imagine the impact of sharing gratitude more regularly for the care that is provided and expressing thanks to team members for a job well done. Sounds soft, right? Not really. How do you feel when someone thanks you for doing your job? Warm, fuzzy, grateful? Consider the impact of how nurses, physicians and other members of the care team would feel if patients were able to directly recognize or thank them for their work in real-time. According to the recently released National Academies of Medicine study (NAM, October 2019) feeling appreciated and valued go hand-in-hand.

The significance of this is that it isn’t hard to express gratitude to clinicians to reinforce the importance of their contribution and provide validation for the meaningful nature of this work. If we know that sharing recognition and gratitude can reduce burnout, provide validation and demonstrate the value that clinicians bring to the patient care ecosystem, why don’t we do more of it? After all, we know that “Meaningful recognition has been acknowledged as a component of a healthy work environment” (AACN, 2017).

For some reason in healthcare, we have a hard time creating a culture built on the “positive” and an even more difficult time maintaining this kind of work environment. Using the tools that we have available will help us to build healthy cultures and positive work environments. According to the work done by the AACN (2017) “… meaningful recognition can influence a healthy work environment…” (pp. 443).

What if we are making this too hard? Working together and finding ways to recognize clinicians for their efforts will incrementally improve the work environment which is highly likely to reduce burnout and promote retention. This is the perfect time to incorporate technologic tools to help us build muscle memory and make it easier for expressing gratitude and demonstrating recognition to accomplish our shared goal of reducing burnout.

AACN Standards for Establishing and Sustaining Healthy Work Environments. (2018). AACN standards for establishing and sustaining healthy work environments. Accessed on September 30, 2019. Accessed from https://www.aacn.org/nursing-excellence/standards/aacn-standards-for-establishing-and-sustaining-healthy-work-environments.

Clinical Well Being Study. (2019). National Academies of Medicine Study. Accessed on November 5, 2019. Accessed from nam.edu/ClinicianWellBeingStudy.

NAM Consensus Study Report. (October, 2019). Accessed on November 8, 2019. Accessed at https://nam.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CR-report-highlights-brief-final.pdf.

Philadelphia, PA – October 7, 2019 – Wambi proudly announces that the company was named a Finalist in Fastest Growing Company of the Year category and co-founder Alex Coren was named a Finalist in the Young Female Entrepreneur of the Year category in the 16th annual Stevie® Awards for Women in Business. Both the company and Coren will ultimately be Gold, Silver, or Bronze Stevie Award winners.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business honor women executives, entrepreneurs, employees and the companies they run – worldwide. The Stevie Awards have been hailed as the world’s premier business awards.

Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners will be announced during a gala event at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York on Friday, November 15. Nominated women executives and entrepreneurs from the U.S.A and several other countries are expected to attend. The event will be broadcast on Livestream.

More than 1,500 entries were submitted this year for consideration. “We are honored to be recognized by our business peers amongst such inspiring women,” says Coren. “This acknowledgement is a representation of the hard work our team has done, and our commitment to creating sustained change for our clients*.*”

Finalists were determined by the average scores of more than 150 business professionals around the world, working on seven juries. Their scores will also determine the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award placements that will be revealed at the 16th annual awards dinner and presentations in New York.

“In its sixteenth year, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business received a record number of nominations. With the second annual Women|Future Conference preceding the announcement of winners on November 15, it will be a day to celebrate the achievements of working women around the world,” said Michael Gallagher, founder and Executive Chairman of the Stevie Awards. “We’re looking forward to recognizing the Stevie Award winners next month.”

Wambi CEO and Co-founder Rebecca Metter adds, “The tech industry has notoriously been dominated by male leadership. I am thrilled that my partner, Alex, is a part of this momentous time in our history when women are taking risks and bringing to bare their skills, vision, and creativity to improve our future.”

Details about the Stevie Awards for Women in Business and the list of Finalists in all categories are available at www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

Wambi delivers an employee engagement and recognition platform informed by real-time patient and family feedback. Through its gamified digital platform, Wambi creates a real-time feedback loop between patients and healthcare workers. This arms individual employees with their own performance data, fueling meaningful recognition while promoting autonomy and inspiring behavioral change. With Wambi, hospitals and health systems have demonstrated improved employee engagement, decreased turnover and burnout, and elevated patient experience. Watch Wambi’s Story told by Inventor, Alex Coren here, and view our video of a day in the life of a nurse using Wambi here.

Stevie Awards are conferred in eight programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards®, The International Business Awards®, the Middle East Stevie Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 nominations each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at www.StevieAwards.com.