The Patient Experience: How You Can Know – Conclusion

By Kent McAllister

PART 4 of 4



If it is true that relevant data helps you manage better, then this author suggests it is time that our health systems bring new measurement tools to bear on the crucial first five minutes of an encounter, when the individual is making the transition and becoming a patient.


Looking only at the outcome of completing a patient admission is woefully inadequate given the complexity of the process and the importance of the outcome. The process deserves detailed measurement and sharp focus and analysis.


The title of this article poses the question, "How can you know?" what any patient’s experience is, and the answer is clear about "How you can know."


You can know by measuring the conversation held in the crucial first five minutes with any new patient with face-to-face recording technology. The benefits of this are clear.


The quality of this encounter is likely to improve once it is being recorded and monitored, as our reflection on the Hawthorne effect makes plain. And a practical extension of this will validate that the message, "this conversation is being recorded for quality and training purposes," will soon become a standard best practice in healthcare management. It already is in many of our nation’s most respected health systems.