Guest Columnists Kate Kalthoff - The Importance of the Patient Experience

GUEST COLUMNIST

KATE KALTHOFF, CPXP

Vice President of Patient Experience

Methodist Healthcare

Sometimes I wonder if any of this matters.

Over the course of my 20+ year career, there have been so many tough days, so many demands, so many obstacles, so many difficult people, so many things that have made my job harder. Every day, I’ve tried so hard to do good work, to leave things better than I found them, to touch people’s lives. And there have been so many times in those 20+ years when I’ve headed home at the end of the day feeling like none of it made a darn bit of difference.

And then, something happens to remind me that it does.

Just a few months ago, I got a message on Facebook from someone I wasn’t connected to, trying to send me a private message. I recognized his name immediately and accepted the friend request. It was a man I had met at a suburban Chicago hospital in 2001. His message was short, “Hi Kate - it’s been such a long time - just wanted to reach out to you and say hi - (my wife) and I will never forget you - it’s been 20 years since (my daughter) is gone - God Bless - “

I nearly fell out of my chair. 20 years ago, his daughter had been in a car accident and was declared brain dead. I offered him the option of donating her organs and spent quite a bit of time guiding him through that decision. Just another day for me, but clearly, it meant a great deal to him. The simple act of being present, of staying out of judgment, of listening, of helping someone who is going through an unbelievably difficult experience…this is how we make a difference in the world. Twenty years later, this family still remembered me and remembered me enough to want to reach out and tell me. I had no idea at the time that they’d feel this way.

This is what it means to work in healthcare. This is why I lead patient experience in healthcare systems. This is why I tell nurses, and food service workers, and housekeepers, and physicians, and registration teams, and telephone operators, and valet parkers, and security guards, and hospital presidents that how they treat people matters.

We often have no idea what our patients and their families are going through when we see them. We only know they’re scared, sad, sick and coming to us for help. How can we be anything to them but kind?

Years from now, the kindness you showed someone will still be remembered and appreciated. Those people may not reach out to you over Facebook, but they’ll still be grateful to you. Through all the tough days and the many demands that you can’t control, you can control how you treat your patients and their families.

Try this simple exercise at the start of every work day: • Think of 3 words you’d want patients or your coworkers to use to describe you. • What are you going to do to leave them with that impression? If you want them to think of you a certain way, there are things you have to do; what are they? • Knowing that some days are tougher than others, overcome those challenges by holding on to those 3 words. Take a few seconds when you’re feeling stressed and say those 3 words to yourself. • Share those 3 words with your team and have them share theirs with you. Lift each other up and encourage one another by reminding each other that you are those 3 words, on good days and bad days.

You never know who you’re going to impact, whose life you’re going to touch, or who is going to remember you 20 years from now.