The Human Touch: Key to Patient - and Customer - Satisfaction

What makes hospital patients feel better?  Medical interventions aside, a 2015 Johns Hopkins study revealed simple things hospitals do to improve the patient experience.
 


Based on responses to questionnaires and letters sent to CEOs and medical personnel from a nationwide sample of 53 hospitals, researchers concluded that successful interventions included:


* Proactive nurse rounds, where nurses regularly visited patients’ bedsides, asking questions about their care;
 
* Leader rounds where hospital leaders, including executives, visited patients and staff members to check on concerns or issues;
 
* Always making eye contact with patients;
 
* Sitting at patients’ bedsides, rather than standing or hovering over them
 
Note that these practices all fall under one essentially important category:  respectful, engaged human contact.  Patients are hospital “customers”, and customers want to feel valued. What applies to hospital staff applies to us all: Listen to customers and treat them with respect, and they will give you high marks.
 
We want to hear. Can you give an example of when you, as a customer. were treated as a valued human being?  What do you do to make your own customers feel this way? To join the conversation, click "comments" on our Community of Practice Forum.

If you would like to read more about creating a habit around masterful communication, check out our book: Be Quiet, Be Heard: The Paradox of Persuasion.

---