Health professionals and staff are guests in the lives of those who trust and depend upon them
for care – not vice versa

Welcome to the latest issue of Alliance Focus. In this edition, we'll explore the difference between patient experience and patient satisfaction while profiling innovative clinical applications that are in motion today across our VHA regions. Until now, it is safe to say that prior to 2006, improving the patient experience has been a moving target because health care organizations have had no single, unified, standardized way to assess what patients value about their care experience in a quantifiable way.

However, thanks to the implementation of the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey, that's changing. HCAHPS® gives us a valid tool for measuring patient experience about certain aspects of hospital care so we can learn how we're doing -- changing from hospital-centric to patient-centric organizations. In simpler terms, we're moving from asking patients "What's the matter" to, "What matters to you?"

Through HCAHPS, we are being assessed on actions we take that put patients into the very center of our processes. Sound like a radical change? You bet it is. Read and learn how one VHA hospital has literally taken this to heart, removing any sign that says the word "visitor" to make patients feel more at home. After all, we're stepping into the patient's life, not the other way around. It's high time we created real, measurable changes that make that belief a reality.

At its core, health care is a high-touch, people-based business so physicians and staff have to change, comprehensively and permanently, for us to achieve the goals set by HCAHPS and ultimately qualify for the highest levels of reimbursement. To get there, we need to listen clearly to the message of the patient: "Nothing about me without me."

Lillee Gelinas
VHA Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer

“We're moving from asking patients ‘What’s the matter’ to ‘What matters to you?’”