Volume 4
WHAT’Snew
Number 23
November 13, 2015
Pennsylvania Hospital
Patients FIRST at the Nation’s FIRST REFLECTING ON THE PENN MEDICINE EXPERIENCE AT PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL Always entering a patient’s room with a warm smile and a positive attitude… Placing a blanket over a patient’s loved one who fell asleep in the OR waiting room… Walking a disoriented patient across the street to an MRI appointment… Taking a moment to stop and ask, “Is everything okay? How may I help you?” These are all examples of the type of behaviors that contribute to a patient and family “perfect 10 experience” at Penn Medicine. Creating the perfect patient experience can happen when every staff member strives to seamlessly connect the many transitions in a patient’s care across our health system. Seamless transitions reduce patient suffering and anxiety — and they increase opportunities to build patient and visitor confidence and trust in our services. This year marked the launch of the first-ever Penn Medicine Experience Week (PMEW). Celebrated throughout the health system the first week of October, PMEW had a two-fold purpose: to raise awareness about the importance of service excellence and to recognize and reward staff for the important work they do all year long to improve our patient experience.
INSIDE Patients First at the Nation’s First (cont’d)............................ 2 Lighting Up the Night to Fight Leukemia and Lymphoma.................... 2 Celebration of Life for Our Littlest Patients............................... 3 Emergency Nurses Week — Celebrating the Courage of Nurses Worldwide, Honoring Our Own ......... 3 Light Up a Life for Penn Wissahickon Hospice! ........................ 4 Penn Medicine & Virtua Coming Together For South Jersey.................. 4 Giving is Penn’s Way............................ 4
Each month, the hospital receives many positive comments from patients about care they received at the PAH — through responses in Press Ganey/patient surveys, manager rounding, letters and emails sent directly to physicians and administration, and via Patient and Guest Relations. During one of the week’s events, administrators shared
some of these comments with the audience, featuring staff in departments throughout the hospital, reinforcing how each member of the Penn Medicine community, no matter where he or she works, has a unique in ensuring the best experience for each patient. Over and over again, patient comments of thanks and praise reinforced the importance of clear, articulate and sensitive communications and spoke of employees who made that extra effort — that little bit more — which elevated patient’s experience to a whole new level of care excellence. For example, there were the comments about Bryan Blanchard, MSN, ACNP-BC, CRNP, the advanced practice nurse who had cared for a cardiac surgery patient recovering on 6 Cathcart. The patient had shared with staff that her first grandchild was being born at PAH that day. So Bryan partnered with Marybeth Lahey, MSN, RN, NE-BC, the nurse manager of the Well Mother and Baby Unit, and Admissions to arrange for the patient’s daughter-in-law and newborn baby boy to visit her on 6 Cathcart. In an even further gesture of thoughtfulness, Bryan entered into the patient’s electronic record on the bedside computer that she was “permitted to visit her grandson anytime she’d like.” PAH also welcomed a special keynote speaker, Steven Zarycki. He is the author of Stairways: A True Story of Love, Life and Death, a memoir of the life he shared with his high-school sweetheart and wife, Lori. Stairways details his experience as a primary caregiver after his wife was diagnosed with stomach cancer in June 2012. Zarycki’s talk chronicled Lori’s journey with cancer and their experiences at PAH. He personally thanked — by name — care / / / Continued on page 2
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