The Healthcare Experience Matters Podcast is back this week with a brand-new episode featuring Katie Owens, MHA, CPXP, and Kathleen Lynam, RN, MPA.

In addition to their roles as Healthcare Experience Foundation (HXF) coaching faculty, Katie currently serves as HXF President and Co-Founder, while Kathleen is an Executive Coach and Senior Advisor with HXF.

Both of today’s podcast contributors have played an integral role in building the learning objectives and agenda for HXF’s upcoming summer cohort of its Relationship Rounding Certificate Program.

This course is delivered in a single 4-hour session over a period of one day as a virtual development session on June 14, 2024, and it will return for a fall cohort on October 11, 2024.

Participants can expect to contribute to both large and small group discussions, as well as interactive learning opportunities. Learn more and sign up here.

A New Era of Relationship Rounding in Healthcare

The conversation kicks off with Katie explaining that while rounding has long been a staple in healthcare leadership, it has often devolved into a task-oriented process. A new relationship rounding approach must be ushered in—one that reimagines rounding to emphasize generating conversations, building relationships, and driving meaningful outcomes.

Katie notes that traditional rounding has often become a compliance exercise, losing its potential to foster genuine connections between leaders, employees, and patients.

To counter this, the updated curriculum of our upcoming Relationship Rounding event focuses on authentic leadership and emphasizes the importance of engaging in meaningful conversations rather than merely checking off tasks.

Kathleen adds that witnessing rounds turn into audits has been disheartening, which is why the new approach aims to change the game moving forward.

The discussion also touches on the significance of relationship rounding in the post-pandemic healthcare landscape. Katie shares insights from recent research indicating that patient perceptions of their experiences have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.

She highlights the importance of adapting leadership strategies to connect with and support the workforce while ensuring patients receive the best possible care.

About the Relationship Rounding Certificate Program

Conversations are relationships. Leader rounding is one of the most documented practices to focus on patient experience, engagement, quality, and safety outcomes, and more. Yet, frequently, rounding efforts do not equate to improvements in desired outcomes.

Simply put, the status quo of how rounding has been implemented is no longer achieving the necessary improvements, while simultaneously frustrating leaders across all organizations. We have found that the past rounding hallmarks of “checklists and audits” are not effective at achieving desired outcomes and do not reflect genuine, authentic leadership.

The increased stressors on our organizations over the past several years compel us to reestablish connections and relationships. The Relationship Rounding Certification is based on our transformative approach to empower leaders to move beyond the “task” of rounding to a high-impact leadership competency and process that drives retention, quality, and patient experience results.

Designed for leaders who are committed to enhancing experience excellence through relationships, improving quality, and boosting employee and physician engagement, our certificate program bridges the gap between traditional rounding practices and a modern, humanistic approach to building and broadening relationships and ultimately trust with patients, staff, and physicians.

Learn more and sign up here.

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