It’s well known that patient experience and workforce engagement are intertwined, but few providers integrate and analyze these data to understand the connection. Press Ganey researchers now show that hospitals that improve over time in distinct HCAHPS survey measures of employee engagement and patient experience (as gauged by how well doctors and nurses communicate with them) also see improvement in patients’ global ratings of their care. Further, the data reveal that there is an additive effect when organizations improve in both experience and engagement measures simultaneously, and that there is a pronounced association between improvement in overall hospital rating and financial performance: for every five-point increase in hospital rating there is a a 1% increase in profit margin.
Health care executives know that patient experience and workforce engagement are intertwined, but few providers integrate and analyze these data to really understand the connection. Management tends to take it on faith that improving patient experience and enhancing employee engagement are good ideas — but faith alone doesn’t always lead to appropriate prioritization if it isn’t accompanied by insight into how issues relate to bottom-line performance.
