Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Tina Bennett, Chief Experience Officer at Yale New Haven Health
Transcript
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- 0:59- Well, hello, everyone. I'm Rick Evans, the cochair
- 1:02- of the chief experience officer advisory board here
- 1:05- at Becker's Health Care. I've had the privilege
- 1:08- of serving in the chief experience officer role
- 1:10- at great hospitals like New York Presbyterian and
- 1:13- Massachusetts
- 1:14- General
- 1:15- Hospital in, in Boston.
- 1:17- Chief experience officers or CXOs
- 1:20- across the country play a pivotal role in
- 1:23- assuring that their organizations
- 1:25- understand the perceptions
- 1:27- and the real experiences of patients, families, and
- 1:30- customers in their health systems,
- 1:32- and they assure that their organizations have a
- 1:34- defined and robust strategy to continually improve that
- 1:38- experience
- 1:39- with the goal of maintaining patient loyalty and
- 1:42- remaining competitive
- 1:43- in the markets where we serve.
- 1:45- There is deep expertise
- 1:48- in the CXO community in American health care,
- 1:50- and there's a defined body of knowledge about
- 1:53- how to truly understand and improve
- 1:55- the patient and consumer experience.
- 1:58- And today, I'm very lucky to be joined
- 2:01- by one of those innovative and expert CXOs
- 2:04- for a conversation about their work.
- 2:06- With me today
- 2:07- is Tina Bennett, the chief experience officer at
- 2:10- Yale New Haven Health.
- 2:12- Tina, welcome. It's
- 2:14- wonderful to have you, with me this morning.
- 2:18- Thank you so much, Rick, for having me.
- 2:20- I'm so excited to be here and have
- 2:22- this discussion. It's such important work we do.
- 2:25- I couldn't agree more. Why don't we start
- 2:27- with, just telling us a little bit about
- 2:30- yourself and your role and your responsibility, your
- 2:32- scope at Yale New Haven Health?
- 2:36- Today, my role includes the entire enterprise. So,
- 2:39- you know, we're a very large,
- 2:41- academic,
- 2:44- health system that stretches across,
- 2:47- Connecticut primarily into Rhode Island and New York
- 2:50- for those of you that don't know.
- 2:53- So I am responsible for all sides of
- 2:55- the entire enterprise, including ambulatory.
- 2:58- So my role entails the strategic,
- 3:02- development
- 3:03- and,
- 3:04- improvement strategy
- 3:06- for patient experience
- 3:07- as well as I have five operational
- 3:10- departments
- 3:12- that I lead as well, like language services,
- 3:14- spiritual care, volunteer services, guest services, patient relations.
- 3:20- Wonderful. So you have to keep the trains
- 3:22- running on time in your departments,
- 3:24- and your scope is enormous.
- 3:27- That's that's a lot of territory to cover.
- 3:30- Let's dive into,
- 3:31- how you're doing your work at Yale New
- 3:33- Haven Health. So how are your patient experience
- 3:36- metrics tracking this year, and, you know, where
- 3:39- do you see success and challenges? And I'll
- 3:41- say right up front,
- 3:42- any strategy is gonna have bright spots, and
- 3:44- then there's always things to work on.
- 3:47- So if you could share with us a
- 3:48- little bit about how that's going for you.
- 3:52- I'd say,
- 3:53- it's a it's mixed, which I I think
- 3:55- many of our colleagues can relate to. We
- 3:58- measure recommend. Right? That's our loyalty, our trust
- 4:01- measure. We measure that across the enterprise. And
- 4:04- even that has been strategic for us because
- 4:06- we have such a large ambulatory setting. So
- 4:09- we survey across the board.
- 4:11- And we're,
- 4:13- seeing improvement compared to last year. So we're
- 4:17- at about our threshold compared to,
- 4:21- last year's performance showing improvement towards the target.
- 4:24- Many of our hospitals are at target. What
- 4:26- we find is we're so different, though. Right?
- 4:29- There's different barriers, different patient populations
- 4:32- across our health system, but we are making
- 4:34- gains.
- 4:35- What I will tell you,
- 4:37- is our biggest opportunity for improvement
- 4:40- is around the inpatient and the ED setting
- 4:43- because it's different. You have different challenges
- 4:46- with our patients, and we have roommates at
- 4:48- some of our hospitals and things like that.
- 4:50- So that continues to be our biggest area
- 4:53- of opportunity.
- 4:54- But it's also been an area where we've
- 4:56- made some really important gains.
- 4:59- So, like, for example, one of our hospitals,
- 5:01- we've had a four point improvement in our
- 5:03- top box scores
- 5:04- just from having a concierge
- 5:06- and having dedicated
- 5:09- collaborative efforts around all of our team members
- 5:12- at the table.
- 5:13- So that has really helped drive improvement there.
- 5:16- Something similar at our flagship hospital,
- 5:19- Yale New Haven, the 1,500 bed, the biggest
- 5:22- hospital. We've had almost two points improvement in
- 5:25- the ED itself,
- 5:27- just from just that dedicated
- 5:29- look at patient experience and prioritizing
- 5:32- it, prioritizing
- 5:33- rounding in the ED. So some of those
- 5:35- techniques we are seeing really helped us. We
- 5:38- are certainly not where we want to be,
- 5:40- but we're excited about the improvement there. Mhmm.
- 5:44- The same with HCAHPS too.
- 5:46- HCAHPS is an area of opportunity for us.
- 5:49- But we've improved in almost all of them
- 5:52- because we've carved out,
- 5:54- I'd say, four or five very important
- 5:57- improvement strategies, and we've been focusing on the
- 6:00- consistency
- 6:01- of them.
- 6:02- And so we've seen the improvement there.
- 6:05- And that's been the key. You know, there's
- 6:07- no new secret sauce. It's the consistency
- 6:10- in the behaviors and in those best practices.
- 6:13- Well, you've identified so many themes that, you
- 6:16- know, for those that might be listening that
- 6:17- aren't patient experience types,
- 6:20- one of the key things that all of
- 6:22- us CXOs know is how things go in
- 6:24- your ED. That's how things go in your
- 6:26- inpatient.
- 6:27- And you can't have a great inpatient rating
- 6:31- when you've got patients in your ED waiting
- 6:33- for beds for twelve, twenty four hours, etcetera.
- 6:36- I know, like, in my experience
- 6:38- using the STAR methodology,
- 6:40- patients that had to wait for a long
- 6:42- time with a bed might give their inpatient
- 6:44- experience one or two stars.
- 6:46- If they didn't have to do that, it's
- 6:47- three or four stars. So the work always
- 6:50- has to be between those ED and, inpatient.
- 6:53- You also pointed out two point increases, four
- 6:55- point increases.
- 6:57- Again, you and I know this, Tina, but
- 6:59- a lot of people out there may not
- 7:00- realize that. Two points you said. That's not
- 7:02- much. When you look at the rate of
- 7:04- improvement for patient experience metrics around the country,
- 7:07- a two point increase in an area, a
- 7:10- four point increase in an area might put
- 7:12- you at the very, very top quartile for
- 7:14- rate of improvement.
- 7:16- So that those are pretty, great numbers, Tina.
- 7:19- Congratulations.
- 7:19- I know there's a lot of work behind
- 7:21- that. Thank you.
- 7:23- You know, we all look at dashboards. You
- 7:25- were mentioning scores.
- 7:27- What are some themes that maybe you're hearing
- 7:29- from your patients that that don't make it
- 7:31- onto a dashboard that we should be thinking
- 7:34- about and working on?
- 7:37- I love this question, and, I think our
- 7:40- patients are yearning for the human connection, and
- 7:43- that doesn't make it to a dashboard.
- 7:46- What we are hearing from our patients and
- 7:48- our comments,
- 7:50- is that they're looking for the connection. They
- 7:53- have made comments
- 7:55- lately more than ever about
- 7:58- sometimes us feeling robotic,
- 8:01- in our interactions
- 8:02- with them. We have seen comments or heard
- 8:05- from patients that I felt like I was
- 8:07- treated like a job rather than a person.
- 8:10- That is one that,
- 8:12- you know, I'm sad to see as often
- 8:15- as I do.
- 8:17- And, again, that is telling us that our
- 8:19- patients are really focused on how we make
- 8:22- them feel.
- 8:23- And that's where it's beyond the dashboard. The
- 8:26- dashboard is helping us to understand, right, where
- 8:29- we need to focus in on. But it
- 8:30- doesn't always tell the full story. And that's
- 8:33- why our patients and our comments, they tell
- 8:36- us more about what our patients need from
- 8:38- us. And I think it's the human connection.
- 8:40- That's the key.
- 8:42- And, most of our staff want that connection,
- 8:45- too.
- 8:46- And, the challenges on the front line, again,
- 8:48- when you've got a nurse or a doctor,
- 8:50- tons of production pressure, they've got a document,
- 8:52- they've got to get through their tasks.
- 8:54- It's actually not an easy thing to find
- 8:56- a way to connect when you've got to
- 8:58- do all that. Right? And so, you know,
- 9:00- the work is helping us bridge that gap.
- 9:04- Yeah. And that's a theme, Tina, in a
- 9:06- lot of our other podcasts we're hearing everywhere.
- 9:09- A lot of technology too,
- 9:11- and, you know, we sort of feel less
- 9:13- connected. So as long
- 9:14- as there's work to do there.
- 9:17- This isn't a shocker for anyone listening. Budgets
- 9:20- are tied everywhere. Medicaid cuts especially
- 9:23- distressing.
- 9:24- How has your team adapted,
- 9:27- through all those,
- 9:28- budget constraints that I think many of us
- 9:30- are facing?
- 9:33- I'm proud to say that,
- 9:36- we have adapted
- 9:38- pretty well considering
- 9:40- that I tell you, I've been here a
- 9:42- long time, almost twenty one years within this
- 9:45- health system, and
- 9:47- our budgets are the tightest they've ever been
- 9:49- in life.
- 9:51- However,
- 9:52- the patient experience has to continue to be
- 9:55- a priority for us. So what do you
- 9:56- do? I think my mindset for,
- 10:00- patient experience specifically
- 10:03- is in everything we do is to think
- 10:06- about not what we do, but what can
- 10:08- we do.
- 10:09- Okay?
- 10:10- And our behaviors cost us nothing.
- 10:14- Right? I love that. They are completely free.
- 10:17- And so that has to be what remains
- 10:20- constant. And so reinforcing
- 10:22- that,
- 10:23- that is a budget friendly thing all of
- 10:25- our leaders can do. Right?
- 10:28- Even our leaders who are not within patient
- 10:30- experience. Right? How do we prioritize?
- 10:33- And also, one of the things that comes
- 10:35- to mind with your question is if our
- 10:38- team members see that it's our leader's priority,
- 10:40- it will be a priority for them.
- 10:43- So again, that cost us nothing. But I'll
- 10:45- give you an example.
- 10:47- We had a patient experience symposium
- 10:50- in June,
- 10:51- our second one, and I had zero budget,
- 10:53- Rick.
- 10:54- I was told I couldn't buy food.
- 10:57- So so the symposium was eight to twelve.
- 11:00- That way, it's done in time for you
- 11:01- to go buy lunch.
- 11:03- We were able to get a keynote through
- 11:05- a vendor contract, Things like that. So you
- 11:07- have to get creative.
- 11:09- We cannot,
- 11:11- stop prioritizing
- 11:13- our patients
- 11:14- and that experience. That has to continue to
- 11:17- happen despite the budget constraints.
- 11:19- So going into that toolkit and thinking about
- 11:22- what you can do is really, really important,
- 11:25- whether it's recognition.
- 11:26- Right? So that symposium was full of recognition.
- 11:30- You mentioned it a few minutes few minutes
- 11:31- ago.
- 11:32- If our employees are engaged, right, they impact
- 11:35- the experience. So it's also about how our
- 11:37- employees feel. So that symposium
- 11:40- was really centered around that and sharing best
- 11:42- practices.
- 11:43- Again, that cost us nothing.
- 11:46- Yeah.
- 11:47- And, you know, I think, embedded in what
- 11:50- you were saying,
- 11:51- you know, well, Yellow Haven is so lucky
- 11:54- to have you,
- 11:55- and your expertise.
- 11:57- No. Really. It's it's true.
- 11:59- And that requires so a lot of things
- 12:02- can be done, as you said, for free.
- 12:04- But if a leader prioritizes if if if
- 12:07- you're the CEO or the CFO of of
- 12:09- a health care organization and you believe in
- 12:11- patient experience, you gotta invest in it, just
- 12:13- like you have to invest in other quality
- 12:15- improvement.
- 12:16- So, you know, most patient experience teams, and
- 12:18- this is probably two of yours to, Tina,
- 12:21- it was of mine, we're small but mighty.
- 12:24- We we roll with the punches, but we're
- 12:26- optimists. But you have to have that expertise,
- 12:29- that Tina Bennett in your organization so you
- 12:32- know you're doing the right stuff. So, yeah,
- 12:34- budget cuts are are real, but in the
- 12:37- investment is is still has to be there.
- 12:39- If we value it, we have to fund
- 12:41- it.
- 12:43- We're all kind of waiting in the PX
- 12:44- field. We had a new HCAHPS survey put
- 12:48- into the field,
- 12:49- last in in 2025,
- 12:51- the first update to HCAHPS in years.
- 12:54- New questions, new domains,
- 12:57- and we're waiting for those first publicly reported,
- 13:00- results to come out, at the end of
- 13:02- this year. Those results are are lagging all
- 13:05- the time. What are you most curious to
- 13:07- see when those publicly reported numbers finally get
- 13:10- released sometime this fall?
- 13:14- I'd say,
- 13:15- I I'm very much interested in seeing
- 13:18- what happens around restfulness.
- 13:21- Right?
- 13:22- So that's a big one. So for those
- 13:24- that don't know,
- 13:26- with this change,
- 13:28- quiet at night was one question. Right? And
- 13:31- and the expansion
- 13:33- of,
- 13:34- and the change to this domain to have
- 13:36- more questions.
- 13:38- I'm curious to see what happens.
- 13:40- Will it tell us more? Is it gonna
- 13:43- be more challenging? That's been a huge opportunity
- 13:46- for improvement at all of our hospitals
- 13:48- within our system despite the size. We struggle
- 13:52- with with quiet.
- 13:54- And we know that, you know, promotes and
- 13:56- leads to better healing. So I'm interested in
- 13:58- seeing that.
- 13:59- The other change that I
- 14:01- I I can't wait to see the outcome
- 14:03- of is the care coordination question around responsiveness.
- 14:07- For those that don't know,
- 14:09- it was the call bell question along with
- 14:12- toileting.
- 14:13- And so no longer asking the call bell
- 14:15- question,
- 14:17- you know, I'm interested in seeing what direction
- 14:20- that brings us in terms of our performance
- 14:22- from the patient perspective.
- 14:24- Yeah. Yeah. I think,
- 14:26- they're gonna be probably some things we expected.
- 14:28- Like, to your point, the restfulness,
- 14:30- if you have any double bedded rooms, I
- 14:32- mean, restfulness is pretty hard to to nail
- 14:35- or or get, you know, a lot of
- 14:37- stars on, so to speak.
- 14:39- So there'll be a lot of things to
- 14:40- process when that comes out, around the country
- 14:43- and, you know, we'll we'll reconnect, Tina, when
- 14:45- that happens, I'd love to hear your reactions.
- 14:48- Deal.
- 14:49- Maybe the last, question today,
- 14:52- how would you describe
- 14:53- where
- 14:54- patient experience
- 14:56- ends and consumer experience
- 14:59- begins in your organization? So, you know, I
- 15:02- the last couple of years in our field,
- 15:04- you've seen those those notions coming together, sort
- 15:07- of patient experience
- 15:09- when you're sort of getting care. But consumer
- 15:11- experience talks about all the things that potentially
- 15:13- happen before and after interactions. But how are
- 15:16- you seeing that at Yale New Haven Health?
- 15:20- I think, I'd say
- 15:22- we have come to a place where that
- 15:24- line almost doesn't exist. Right? It's starting to
- 15:28- be more of a blurred line. There is
- 15:30- no distinction
- 15:31- because you have to focus on both. And
- 15:34- so that's where we are.
- 15:36- And, strategically,
- 15:37- that's where,
- 15:38- you know, I am also trying to help
- 15:41- the the senior leaders understand
- 15:43- the importance of that pivot. Right?
- 15:46- So,
- 15:47- for example, our system objectives. Everyone's probably, you
- 15:50- know, working on their system objectives. We're planning
- 15:53- for our fiscal year starts October.
- 15:56- And so
- 15:58- there's a there's a a focus on
- 16:02- public rankings, leapfrog,
- 16:04- Visiance, star ratings. Right?
- 16:08- But also that loyalty measure.
- 16:11- So how do you do both? And so
- 16:13- even in our strategy around what will be
- 16:15- our strategic goals for our entire enterprise, it
- 16:18- has to be both. If you have 200,000
- 16:21- patients in the ambulatory setting, their voice matters
- 16:25- just as much
- 16:26- as our patients in the adult inpatient settings.
- 16:28- Right? So,
- 16:30- I think, you know, the strategy has to
- 16:32- be centered around that
- 16:34- and
- 16:35- understanding that if we want patients to come
- 16:37- back to us, again, how we make them
- 16:40- feel, how we prioritize
- 16:42- patient experience
- 16:43- is how we sustain and grow our organizations.
- 16:46- It has to be both. And, you know,
- 16:49- twenty plus years ago, I was in a
- 16:51- car accident, and this is where it the
- 16:53- light bulb switched for even for me.
- 16:55- The ambulance driver asked me, where do you
- 16:57- wanna go?
- 16:59- Which hospital do you wanna go to?
- 17:01- And so even back then, but now more
- 17:04- than ever, people have a choice.
- 17:06- They can choose where they want to go,
- 17:08- and we want them to choose us. And
- 17:11- me back then
- 17:12- had to think about where where would I
- 17:14- wanna go? Where do I feel most comfortable?
- 17:16- Or where would my family recommend for me?
- 17:19- All of those things
- 17:21- are what drives. Right?
- 17:23- Yep. Yep. It's interesting,
- 17:25- when I when I talk about it,
- 17:28- where I've worked, we use a lot of
- 17:29- words that begin with c, compassion,
- 17:32- communication,
- 17:34- consistency. You mentioned that word a couple times
- 17:36- and that's really where sort of the beginning
- 17:38- and end of the game with patient experience
- 17:40- is consistency
- 17:41- across all the interactions.
- 17:43- There's a new word that begins with C,
- 17:45- I think, that's related to consumers and that's
- 17:47- convenience.
- 17:48- And you mentioned, you know, patients have more
- 17:50- choice
- 17:51- and they're interacting with us now on their
- 17:54- web on our websites, over the phone, and
- 17:56- if they can't get what they need from
- 17:57- us, they'll go somewhere else.
- 18:01- And so you mentioned it like loyalty.
- 18:04- You you want that, you know, when you're
- 18:06- in, God forbid, in that ambulance or even
- 18:08- when you're deciding where to go for a
- 18:09- doctor, you you don't want any question about
- 18:12- where you're gonna go. It's gonna be to
- 18:13- Yale New Haven Health or to the organization
- 18:15- that you're loyal to. And that doesn't happen
- 18:18- by accident. Right? It happens by design.
- 18:21- Absolutely.
- 18:22- Was there anything else you want to share
- 18:24- today? Any advice for for others in patient
- 18:26- experience before we,
- 18:28- wrap it up?
- 18:30- I would say don't let up.
- 18:32- That is usually,
- 18:34- important for us because there are going to
- 18:36- be barriers and challenges.
- 18:38- And,
- 18:39- I heard from a wise, wise colleague who
- 18:43- said,
- 18:44- when when your colleagues question you and your
- 18:47- expertise
- 18:48- to stick with what you know and know
- 18:50- that you're the true expert.
- 18:52- Right? Don't let someone come from a conference
- 18:55- and tell you how to do something different.
- 18:57- Right?
- 18:58- So I think that's really, really important. I
- 19:00- got that from Rick, by the way.
- 19:03- I have to give credit where it's due,
- 19:05- but it's something that has resonated with me,
- 19:09- because, like you said, this is, a combination
- 19:12- of art and science.
- 19:14- But we need support.
- 19:16- As patient experience leaders, we need the support
- 19:18- of our colleagues and our organizations
- 19:21- to prioritize
- 19:22- this because
- 19:23- every interaction drives the experience. So we're just
- 19:26- here to influence and drive the strategy,
- 19:29- but we need every single member of all
- 19:31- of our teams,
- 19:33- including the leaders, including the frontline to help
- 19:35- us make this happen for our patients and
- 19:38- their loved ones. That's fantastic,
- 19:41- and a great way to wrap things up.
- 19:42- Look. It's the field of patient experiences
- 19:45- is lucky to have you, Tina, in our
- 19:48- field contributing to our work. Patient experience belongs
- 19:51- to everybody. Right? So PX people are sharers.
- 19:54- We like to share knowledge because it benefits
- 19:56- the people we serve.
- 19:58- And, you know, having lived in Connecticut and
- 20:01- near for many years, Yale New Haven Health
- 20:03- is a remarkable organization that provides
- 20:06- unbelievable care to the people of Connecticut. So,
- 20:09- it's good to have you on today for
- 20:11- all those reasons.
- 20:12- Thank you, Tina, and,
- 20:14- we wish all of our listeners a good
- 20:16- day.
- 20:17- Thank you so much.