way to develop a connection with them. The same holds true in sur-
gery. With the anxiety that can build up for patients in pre-op, it can
be a more personal experience to get eye-to-eye with them.
At Surgery Center at Fountain Valley (Calif.), every member of the
surgical team sits down at the bedside when tending to patients in
pre-op.
"They're not standing at the foot of the bed, they're not talking down
to the patient having an impersonal experience," says Administrator
Walter Topp, MSCH, CASC. "If you sit down and spend the same exact
time, it seems like a more personal experience."
4. Think like a patient
A team at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Mo., had a vision: to view
the perioperative setting through the patient's eyes. What they found
was that there was a correlation between the patient experience and
patient outcomes. The hospital conducted "Patient Zone" training for its
800 perioperative team members. The training was designed to enhance
communication skills and professionalism by focusing on how actions
and words impact the patient experience.
In a similar initiative, the staff at the Surgery Center at Fountain
Valley has engaged in "empathy training." The center closes down for
a day, sends staff members to an offsite location and walks them
through what patients might be feeling, their perspectives and how to
frame questions.
"We don't just want to solve [patients'] problems, but to hear their
concerns and to allay them with information and compassion," says
Mr. Topp. "It can kind of be a cold industry at times. Sometimes you
feel like you're just a number going through. That's why we try to be
very person-specific and talk to them about their particular concerns."
In addition, the center encourages the surgeons to spend some
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