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Teamwork Award winner Duke Raleigh Hospital Inpatient Satisfaction Team with Chancellor of the Health System, Dr. Victor Dzau & President Richard Brodhead |
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Duke Raleigh Hospital Unit Honored with Teamwork Award
Members of the Duke Raleigh Hospital (DHRH) Inpatient Satisfaction
Team received the prestigious Teamwork Award for working together to do the
little things that have made a big difference in the lives of patients.
First gathered together in February of 2005, this team took on the challenge of addressing declining patient satisfaction scores for inpatient services. Meeting regularly throughout the spring and summer, the team instituted a series of new initiatives that involved nearly every discipline within the hospital (see sidebar).
The results have been remarkable. "Inpatient satisfaction scores moved from the 35th percentile nationally to the 75th percentile nationally in six months," said Duke University Chancellor for Health Affairs Victor J. Dzau, M.D. "Sometimes, with the pressures our hospitals are under, it seems almost an insurmountable challenge to meet all of the expectations patients have. But this team showed it could be done. This team exemplifies our notion that the patient should be at the center of everything we do."
Little Steps Add Up To Big Changes
"I'll never forget the first time we celebrated one of our patient's birthdays -- something we now do for each patient who is in the hospital on their special day," says Mickey Foster, director of the Education and Service Excellence program at Duke Raleigh Hospital (DHRH).
"We went into the room of a 36-year-old cancer patient and sang to him," Foster says. "His wife was there, and she came up and hugged me. She cried. I cried. That was the best day I ever had in my career at DHRH."
Celebrating birthdays is just one of many small steps the DHRH Inpatient Satisfaction Team has taken to stride forward in patient satisfaction:
"I think we are the only hospital in North Carolina that delivers a daily newspaper to every inpatient," says Foster. "We provide amenity kits for all patients. Our nurses call each patient a day after discharge to ensure that everything is going well. Our nurse managers leave their phone number with every patient in case of any service issues. We have trained all employees in customer service. We are looking at expediting the delivery of patient meals. We publish our patient satisfaction scores weekly to create friendly competition between units."
Having won the Teamwork Award, the team isn't ready to quit yet. "When I told the team we had won $1,000 with this award, I expected them to plan a big celebration," says Foster. "Instead, they said, 'let's spend it by going off site and have a planning day to see how we can get even better.' "
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