This time will be different! she says. But it never is.

No matter how many times Lucy says she won’t pull the football away, she always does. And it always leaves Charlie Brown up in the air (and then flat on the ground exasperated and defeated.)

Quick Fixes and Short-Term Programs or Initiatives Don’t Work

There’s a lesson there. This is the definition of insanity, right? We keep doing the same things over and over again expecting different results.

So whose fault is it?

In healthcare, we do the same thing. We embrace the latest quick fix, program, or initiative and we roll it out to employees. We expect them to buy into it and that somehow magically, our patient satisfaction scores will go up. And they might, initially. But then like most initiatives and programs of the month, it dies a slow death and becomes the punchline to jokes made in the employee break room.

As healthcare leaders, we have to do something different. We can’t keep getting tricked by quick fixes.

To Boost Patient Experience – Take Care Of Your Employees First

Making meaningful improvements to the patient experience can only happen when we take care of the employee experience first.

It’s tough to do at first, but ultimately, if we want our employees to treat their customers or patients with kindness, compassion, courtesy, and excellent service, we must first treat our employees with kindness, compassion, courtesy, and excellent service.

This is what we mean by transforming your organization’s culture. It isn’t just about boosting patient satisfaction scores. It’s about creating a culture of intention where every employee is engaged and aligned toward one shared goal: delivering expert clinical care with compassion and service excellence to every patient, in every interaction, always.