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Creating sustainable ideal patient experience cultures.

Article Excerpt
Patient-centric strategies have moved from patient satisfaction and brand awareness to customer attachment. Today's health care marketers are beginning to understand brand differentiation as the direct result of superior customer interactions, which result in better patient care, enduring customer relationships, and loyal customers. The points of interaction between the patient and the staff are termed touch-points. However, research and understanding of human behaviors indicate touchpoints are not enough. Satisfactory transactions or encounters are forgettable experiences. Touchpoints need to be converted to opportunities for attachment--the development of a lasting relationship. Every connection with the brand (e.g., in person, Web site, telephone, and personal interactions) provides an opportunity to attach a patient to it. A well-designed experience can eliminate the variability (such as a well-executed office visit or surgery) to allow patient outcomes to be defined, understood, and ultimately felt. Work needs to be considered an interdependent system comprised of the experience ecology: physical environment, work processes, organizational culture (e.g., formal and informal values, norms, expectations, and policies, etc.), workforce demographics, and information technology (Becker, 2006). Organizations need to consider the interdependencies and patterns of interaction between these elements rather than focusing on the individual elements alone.

Worker effectiveness and productivity cannot be improved through piecemeal approaches (silos). It is critical to identify core systemic factors that lead to failures and then develop new solutions that address these issues within the content of culture of change and evolving models of care (work).

Nurses struggle with developing their brand identity, reimbursement issues, and the ever-shifting landscape of attracting and retaining patients. Nurses can build their brand identity to differentiate themselves from competitors by developing long-term strategies focused on creating ideal patient experiences. All patient interactions must support (and keep) the promise of an...

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