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Communication

Physician Engagement, Communication and Results Sharing

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Today we have teamed up with PRC for a new episode of Healthcare Experience Matters. We welcome back Healthcare Experience Foundation (HXF) co-founder and president, Katie Owens, to discuss physician engagement, communication, and results sharing.

As Katie describes on today’s podcast, for many years HXF has embraced the opportunity to support senior teams and physician leaders with advancing the physician experience. This is a major area of focus in HXF’s role as PRC Excellence Accelerator®. 

“PRC has the largest database of physician loyalty in the United States,” Katie said. 

It’s no secret that many organizations are saying physician engagement is a priority, and we know that what we measure gets managed.  This is why it is so fundamentally important to have a process in place to systematically measure and improve physician engagement.

“It has just been one of the big necessities given the current climate of healthcare right now,” she said.

Prioritizing Physician Engagement

When physician engagement becomes a top priority, we build trust and confidence across the continuum of care. This empowers physicians to refer their patients to your specialists or to your healthcare system. 

When physicians can say with confidence that your hospital or healthcare system is an excellent place to practice, they are four times more likely to recommend your organization to their patients, family members and loved ones who may need care.

The stress and strain brought on by Covid-19 has taken a real toll on morale and engagement. At HXF, we are seeing heightened levels of compassion fatigue, stress and burnout.

Measuring Physician Engagement

It’s becoming more and more apparent that it’s just not sufficient for organizations to measure physician engagement every few years. It may not even be enough to measure it every other year. 

We know organizations have unique challenges with their medical staff and there are different dynamics in place at each institution. There is no “one size fits all” answer to the question of how often a survey should be conducted, but an annual approach seems to work best. 

“At the end of the day, what we’re seeing work the most to move the needle is at least an annual survey,” Katie said. 

Getting Back to Basics

At HXF, we are seeing a real need to go “back to basics.” There is a strong call for organizations to address resiliency, gratitude and emotional intelligence. 

“We know self-awareness affords us the chance to self-manage,” Katie said.

Self-awareness it is at the root of building empathetic and successful relationships. Emotional intelligence could be a key factor in driving success and improved performance in any given individual’s career. 

The most effective way that we’ve seen organizations measure this is by conducting a survey, but it’s important to note that the survey does not replace the conversation. 

Surveys allow a senior team the opportunity to take a macro view of institutional factors that need to be managed or improved and then it starts that conversation.

“Demonstrating to physicians and providers that your voice really matters, and that we’re going to take action as a leadership team to make this organization the best place for you to practice, is really important in advancing any given balanced scorecard result,” Katie said.

More HX Matters Podcasts

Our podcast is dedicated to transforming the health care experience so that every person can receive and deliver the best care.

You can subscribe to our podcast for free on all major podcast platforms and for video of our interviews, you can always check out the Healthcare Experience Foundation (HXF) on YouTube. Catch up on all episodes of our podcast by subscribing and following us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music and more.

Meet Katie Owens

Katie believes that the way we deliver and receive healthcare matters—not just for the patients, but for the caregivers, the providers, and administration, too.

As President of the Healthcare Experience Foundation, Katie is taking bold steps to assure that every organization has access to resources for engaging patients and developing their workforce to achieve results. Katie is an innovator, implementing new ways to deliver the best in patient-centered care.

She has influenced hundreds of organizations and thousands of leaders to equip their cultures and instill competencies that create environments of person-centered excellence. Her fundamental tenet is that every person is worthy of an environment where they feel confident in receiving and delivering the best possible care. Known as a leader among leaders, Katie previously served on the HealthStream Leadership Team as Vice President of the Engagement Institute. She also served on the Baptist Health Care (BHC) leadership team in Pensacola, Florida, where she supported the system’s sustained journey to excellence. Katie has led teams of expert coaches dedicated to improving the quality of the patient experience and has been instrumental in creating leading-edge learning assets to support patient experience competencies. She is most proud of having grown Baptist Leadership Group to one of the most respected healthcare coaching practices in the country before being acquired by HealthStream in 2013.

Katie is the lead author of The HCAHPS Imperative for Creating Patient-Centered Excellence and is currently writing her second book about the importance of speaking the patient’s language. She is frequently quoted and has been published in the Huffington Post, Healthcare Financial Management Magazine and Hospitals and Health Networks. She is an energetic, internationally-recognized speaker and has presented for many highly-respected organizations, including American College of Healthcare Executives, Beryl Institute, Cleveland Clinic’s Empathy Summit, Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development, and Healthcare Financial Management Association.

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