Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Building a Stronger Patient Experience Through Employee Engagement with Jill Mabry

Transcript

Building a Stronger Patient Experience Through Employee Engagement with Jill Mabry · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  - Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Becker's Health
• 0:02
  - Care podcast.
• 0:03
  - I'm Mackenzie Bean, associate vice president and managing
• 0:07
  - editor of Becker's Hospital Review.
• 0:10
  - Today, I'm very, very excited to welcome Jill
• 0:13
  - Mabry, who is the vice president of patient
• 0:16
  - experience at Novant Health to the podcast.
• 0:19
  - Jill, thanks for joining us.
• 0:21
  - Thank you, Mckenzie. I'm excited to be with
• 0:23
  - you all today.
• 0:24
  - We are excited to have you. I would
• 0:27
  - love to kick off, our conversation just by
• 0:29
  - having you share a little bit more about
• 0:31
  - yourself and your role at Novant Health for
• 0:33
  - any listeners who might not be as familiar.
• 0:36
  - Sure. Thank you for that.
• 0:38
  - As Mackenzie said, I'm Jill Mabry, vice president
• 0:41
  - of patient experience at Novant Health. I have
• 0:44
  - been with this organization for about three and
• 0:46
  - a half years now, but I have spent
• 0:48
  - my whole career
• 0:50
  - in this patient experience
• 0:52
  - space
• 0:53
  - so long that it was service excellence when
• 0:55
  - I first started. But I was with a
• 0:58
  - health care system,
• 1:00
  - in the beginning when
• 1:02
  - CAPS, CMS, all of these things started to
• 1:05
  - emerge. So that takes us back to, you
• 1:06
  - know, the early two thousands
• 1:09
  - and spent about fourteen years in a healthcare
• 1:11
  - system
• 1:12
  - in North Carolina
• 1:14
  - and decided I was going to venture out
• 1:17
  - a little bit and
• 1:19
  - work for a company that supported healthcare systems.
• 1:22
  - Systems. So many of you might be familiar
• 1:25
  - with Press Ganey, now Qualtrics Press Ganey, but
• 1:27
  - I spent five and a half years
• 1:30
  - working with them,
• 1:32
  - specifically connecting with healthcare systems
• 1:35
  - all over the country
• 1:36
  - on their patient experience improvement journey.
• 1:39
  - And the reason I share that is it
• 1:42
  - really helped me to see outside of the
• 1:44
  - walls of the health care system that I
• 1:46
  - was used to supporting for those fourteen, fifteen
• 1:49
  - years and see that health care really was
• 1:52
  - different depending on where you lived,
• 1:55
  - among other things. So when I was presented
• 1:57
  - with the opportunity
• 1:59
  - to take the lead position
• 2:01
  - for patient experience for Novant Health here in
• 2:04
  - North and South Carolina,
• 2:07
  - I I told myself absolutely why would I
• 2:09
  - not come back and try to take all
• 2:12
  - of the the knowledge
• 2:14
  - and,
• 2:15
  - just the experiences that I have gained from
• 2:17
  - working
• 2:18
  - with a various
• 2:19
  - diverse group of health care systems
• 2:22
  - and help the hospitals and health care system
• 2:25
  - in my own backyard
• 2:26
  - advance the incredible work they were doing. So
• 2:28
  - that's what brought me to Novant Health. That's
• 2:31
  - what keeps me here too, just our our
• 2:33
  - mission
• 2:34
  - and our commitment to delivering on that patient
• 2:37
  - promise.
• 2:38
  - Absolutely. And there's no more admirable mission than
• 2:42
  - that.
• 2:43
  - You mentioned when you started off in your
• 2:45
  - career, you know, the term was service
• 2:47
  - excellence.
• 2:48
  - Now I think we're in an interesting spot
• 2:50
  - where we're seeing
• 2:52
  - consumer experience and patient experience,
• 2:55
  - start to blur together with some experience officers
• 2:58
  - really thinking through that consumer aspect as well.
• 3:00
  - Can you talk through how you think about
• 3:02
  - both of those
• 3:03
  - at Novant Health? Is there a line between
• 3:06
  - the two or are they becoming increasingly
• 3:08
  - integrated?
• 3:09
  - I am pleased to say they are becoming
• 3:12
  - increasingly integrated
• 3:13
  - and, you know, our patients don't
• 3:16
  - experience those things separately, so why should we?
• 3:19
  - But I'll be honest, Mackenzie,
• 3:22
  - this has been an evolution. And I'm not
• 3:23
  - just speaking specific to Novant Health, but I
• 3:26
  - remember distinctly,
• 3:28
  - years ago when the whole term
• 3:31
  - consumer started to
• 3:33
  - come into our vocabulary and it was met
• 3:35
  - with resistance.
• 3:36
  - And
• 3:37
  - just really
• 3:39
  - kind of getting behind that shift, that was
• 3:41
  - early on I started to notice that, you
• 3:43
  - know, our our patients aren't just seeing us
• 3:46
  - in our brick and mortar facilities. They are
• 3:49
  - talking to their friends. They are
• 3:52
  - reviewing
• 3:53
  - us on the internet, reading the Google reviews,
• 3:56
  - all of those things. So it has evolved
• 3:59
  - quickly
• 3:59
  - of our patient experience really starting with that
• 4:03
  - digital front door
• 4:04
  - and seeing our patients as consumers
• 4:07
  - first, then they come to us for their
• 4:09
  - care needs and they are patients,
• 4:12
  - and then when they leave our facilities, they
• 4:14
  - can become consumers again. And so I've been
• 4:17
  - fortunate
• 4:18
  - in my experience here at Novant Health that
• 4:21
  - we have started to marry those those experiences
• 4:24
  - together to really treat them as one and
• 4:27
  - seeing it across the continuum of care.
• 4:31
  - For such
• 4:32
  - a integrated,
• 4:33
  - seamless experience,
• 4:35
  - throughout the whole health care journey.
• 4:38
  - And let's talk about what that really looks
• 4:39
  - like in practice or what sort of results
• 4:41
  - you're seeing. You know, you mentioned you've been
• 4:43
  - with the system for three and a half
• 4:45
  - years. If you're looking at maybe, say, just
• 4:47
  - the past year,
• 4:49
  - what have been some of the successes and
• 4:50
  - challenges you've seen as it pertains to your
• 4:53
  - patient experience work and metrics?
• 4:56
  - Let's start with maybe the challenges.
• 4:58
  - I think the challenge in
• 5:01
  - my work, my team's work, our organization's work
• 5:04
  - is just our our sheer,
• 5:07
  - footprint.
• 5:08
  - You know, we continue to expand across The
• 5:11
  - Carolinas
• 5:12
  - being able to meet the needs of more
• 5:14
  - patients in the communities we serve,
• 5:17
  - And it's really trying to continue
• 5:20
  - to bring on new team members to our
• 5:23
  - way. Right? Our... What we call our spark
• 5:26
  - behaviors and
• 5:28
  - really kind of creating that culture
• 5:30
  - that we are known for
• 5:32
  - and continuing to to extend across
• 5:36
  - the new facilities and team members that join
• 5:39
  - our organization.
• 5:40
  - So I say that's a challenge, but I
• 5:42
  - also say it's a good challenge because it's
• 5:44
  - an opportunity
• 5:45
  - to
• 5:47
  - teach others
• 5:48
  - our ways of,
• 5:50
  - kindness and compassion
• 5:51
  - and
• 5:52
  - really our focus being rooted in the team
• 5:55
  - member first
• 5:56
  - and our physicians or clinicians
• 5:59
  - first.
• 6:00
  - And if we can invest in them, then
• 6:02
  - it makes our work in driving patient experience
• 6:05
  - a little bit easier.
• 6:07
  - And so, again, I think, to me, one
• 6:09
  - of the the beauties of being a part
• 6:11
  - of this health care system is our executive
• 6:13
  - leaders
• 6:14
  - seeing that too
• 6:16
  - and breaking down these silos of
• 6:19
  - team member engagement,
• 6:20
  - patient experience, safety quality, operational excellence, and starting
• 6:24
  - to work across
• 6:26
  - instead of individually.
• 6:27
  - And I say all that because
• 6:30
  - as a result, we have been seeing some
• 6:33
  - really beautiful
• 6:34
  - shifts and transformations
• 6:36
  - in our care delivery as it relates to
• 6:38
  - patient experience. And,
• 6:41
  - when I first got here, we... I was
• 6:42
  - on the tail end of a three year
• 6:45
  - long term goal.
• 6:47
  - And with just a couple of things in
• 6:49
  - that first year, really focusing on our team
• 6:51
  - members and celebrating them and recognizing the work
• 6:54
  - that they do, we met that long term
• 6:57
  - goal, and we've just continued that momentum. So
• 7:00
  - I would say, for us,
• 7:03
  - success is rooted in recognition.
• 7:05
  - And I'll go back to an old saying,
• 7:07
  - what's re... What's, rewarded is what's repeated.
• 7:11
  - And so really being intentional of focusing on
• 7:15
  - those behaviors that we want to see more
• 7:17
  - of
• 7:18
  - that... Whether it's teamwork or,
• 7:21
  - like I mentioned before, our spark behaviors, our
• 7:24
  - values,
• 7:25
  - when we acknowledge that and celebrate that, we
• 7:27
  - get more of it, and in turn, our
• 7:30
  - patients get more of that too.
• 7:32
  - That's such a a win win for both.
• 7:35
  - Those spark behaviors, can you talk more
• 7:38
  - about them? You mentioned
• 7:40
  - training new team members to really embrace that
• 7:42
  - culture and emulate it. What does that training
• 7:45
  - look like?
• 7:47
  - Yeah. So, it's not your traditional training program.
• 7:51
  - Most of us have gone in. We all
• 7:53
  - have core values. We all have standards of
• 7:55
  - behavior.
• 7:57
  - I think anybody listening would say, yes, I've
• 7:59
  - gone through that training or that class. And
• 8:01
  - so what we did was try to do
• 8:03
  - things a little differently in
• 8:07
  - really energizing
• 8:08
  - the class. There's dancing, there's music, there's gamification.
• 8:12
  - Our
• 8:13
  - facilitators
• 8:14
  - are... I would put them up against any
• 8:16
  - emcee
• 8:17
  - who just come with that positive energy. And
• 8:21
  - this started back in 2023.
• 8:23
  - We built a program from scratch in partnership
• 8:26
  - with a gentleman named Chris Bryant,
• 8:29
  - and he does a lot of work in
• 8:31
  - sports arenas, so training guest services teams in
• 8:35
  - sports arenas. So we looked outside of health
• 8:37
  - care to bring in someone to help give
• 8:40
  - us that
• 8:42
  - energy, and the acronym we use is SPARK.
• 8:45
  - So kind of sparking just engagement and enthusiasm,
• 8:49
  - but really rooted in the why
• 8:51
  - we are all here to begin with. And
• 8:54
  - so it's just, you know, two hours of
• 8:57
  - immersing our team members in that, but then
• 8:59
  - it's followed by
• 9:01
  - recognition. We have, spark recognition programs. We
• 9:05
  - award team members Air Force One sneakers,
• 9:09
  - if they are caught being the spark and
• 9:11
  - nominated by another team member. We have parking
• 9:14
  - parking spots at some of our facilities. So
• 9:18
  - when team members are
• 9:20
  - honored or recognized, they might get that special
• 9:22
  - parking spot for a month. We have carts
• 9:25
  - that roam around our hospitals,
• 9:28
  - surprising and delighting team members who are caught
• 9:31
  - exhibiting those spark behaviors. So that's what I
• 9:33
  - mean when I say
• 9:35
  - what gets rewarded gets repeated. And so we've
• 9:37
  - been intentional
• 9:39
  - to make it fun and celebrate whether it's
• 9:42
  - patient experience,
• 9:43
  - performance,
• 9:44
  - and improvement there, or just the
• 9:47
  - the role modeling of the behaviors we expect
• 9:50
  - in our organization.
• 9:52
  - Mhmm. Really
• 9:54
  - a concerted effort to
• 9:56
  - make employees feel recognized and in turn help
• 9:59
  - build that culture up. I'm just curious, you
• 10:01
  - mentioned spark as an acronym. What does that
• 10:04
  - stand for? Yeah. Sure. Great question.
• 10:07
  - The s stands for support a safe environment.
• 10:10
  - We wanted to make sure that we were
• 10:11
  - tying this to our commitment to zero harm
• 10:15
  - and safety and quality.
• 10:16
  - The p stands for personify
• 10:18
  - a passion for service.
• 10:20
  - The a stands for anticipate and acknowledge. So
• 10:24
  - that's really around the service recovery or just,
• 10:27
  - you know, trying to prevent a lapse in
• 10:29
  - service and prevent service recovery.
• 10:32
  - The r is for remaining
• 10:34
  - consistent and reliable. So even during stressful times
• 10:37
  - or even just in the job that you're
• 10:40
  - doing, remaining consistent and reliable for your patients
• 10:43
  - and for your team members. And the K
• 10:46
  - is kindling positive experiences.
• 10:48
  - And in 2026,
• 10:50
  - we've kind of added to that kindling kindness
• 10:53
  - to really emphasize
• 10:55
  - the the importance of kindness in the work
• 10:57
  - that we do.
• 10:59
  - Very much. So it's helpful to hear that
• 11:01
  - breakdown in all of those elements that create
• 11:04
  - such a positive patient experience.
• 11:06
  - Yeah. And, Mackenzie, you know, someone once told
• 11:09
  - me health care doesn't have to be tough
• 11:11
  - and stressful all the time, that health care
• 11:14
  - workers, we're allowed to have fun at work
• 11:16
  - too. And so this is just kind of
• 11:18
  - our element to
• 11:20
  - make sure that we take that pause. It
• 11:22
  - is stressful, and it continues to get stressful
• 11:24
  - in this environment.
• 11:26
  - And the way we have set up patient
• 11:28
  - experience recognition programs or the spark recognition programs,
• 11:33
  - it allows us to have fun, to breathe
• 11:34
  - a little bit, to celebrate one another,
• 11:37
  - and just acknowledge that there is so much
• 11:39
  - greatness that is happening within our walls every
• 11:42
  - single day.
• 11:44
  - Mhmm. Absolutely. And I think you
• 11:47
  - point to an increasing
• 11:49
  - recognition
• 11:50
  - that patient experience and employee experience are so
• 11:53
  - so intertwined. You want both to be just
• 11:56
  - shining.
• 11:57
  - You are a 100% right. And that was
• 12:00
  - one of the early
• 12:01
  - lessons I learned back when patient experience
• 12:05
  - was
• 12:06
  - a score, right, or called patient satisfaction.
• 12:10
  - Someone quickly
• 12:12
  - helped make that connection that you do not
• 12:14
  - get
• 12:15
  - those high ratings, those high marks in patient
• 12:18
  - experience if you don't equally,
• 12:21
  - or if not a little more,
• 12:23
  - focus on your your team members, your employees,
• 12:26
  - your staff, what what... However you refer to
• 12:28
  - them, they are the foundation.
• 12:31
  - The... Without a resilient workforce,
• 12:34
  - one that has a strong sense of belonging
• 12:37
  - and a focus on their well-being,
• 12:39
  - then
• 12:41
  - I'm a firm believer you don't get to
• 12:44
  - fulfill that promise to your patients without investing
• 12:47
  - in your promise to your team members first.
• 12:50
  - Mhmm.
• 12:51
  - And I think you're also,
• 12:53
  - you know, pointing to the acknowledgment that patient
• 12:56
  - experience metrics and the scores are obviously so
• 12:58
  - helpful to track progress and find areas of
• 13:01
  - opportunity, but there's also so much deeper that
• 13:04
  - goes beyond just the number or the metric.
• 13:06
  - I'm curious to have your perspective and especially
• 13:08
  - your background at Press Ganey.
• 13:11
  - Is there a specific
• 13:12
  - theme that you're hearing either right now or
• 13:14
  - or in your time at Press Ganey,
• 13:17
  - regarding
• 13:18
  - patient wants, needs
• 13:19
  - that maybe aren't really captured in a dashboard.
• 13:23
  - Yeah. You know,
• 13:25
  - a lot of the talk that I see
• 13:27
  - locally,
• 13:29
  - or what I say talk is the voices
• 13:31
  - of our patients. What I'm hearing locally is
• 13:33
  - what I'm hearing nationally from other experienced leaders
• 13:37
  - that I partner with. And as you stated,
• 13:39
  - even with my time with Press Ganey, a
• 13:41
  - lot of these things haven't changed.
• 13:44
  - The things of, you know, patients can handle
• 13:46
  - waiting as long as they know what's happening.
• 13:49
  - Or
• 13:49
  - the patients are more understanding
• 13:51
  - if
• 13:52
  - they are kept informed and they know what
• 13:55
  - to expect.
• 13:56
  - And then before even that, getting that access
• 13:59
  - to the care. So I think the things
• 14:00
  - are the same. You're hearing access, you're hearing
• 14:04
  - the desire for effective
• 14:06
  - communication,
• 14:07
  - you're hearing the desire for
• 14:10
  - compassion and kindness.
• 14:12
  - Those things haven't changed. We see that here
• 14:14
  - at Novant Health. I've seen that in other
• 14:16
  - partners that I've had the privilege of working
• 14:18
  - with. And so I don't feel that
• 14:21
  - traditional dashboards really
• 14:23
  - capture all of that if you're doing it
• 14:25
  - in a way where it's metrics only. There's
• 14:28
  - a saying of, you know, data's in black
• 14:30
  - and white and stories are in color. And
• 14:33
  - at Novant Health, we are very intentional
• 14:36
  - about sharing
• 14:37
  - those comments,
• 14:39
  - sharing those true voices
• 14:41
  - of our patients through our survey feedback, through
• 14:44
  - rounding, through other
• 14:46
  - avenues that we might collect their voices patient
• 14:48
  - family advisory councils
• 14:50
  - so that we can better understand
• 14:53
  - their anxiety
• 14:54
  - or on the positive side, their trust with
• 14:57
  - us, their confidence in us. But if we
• 15:00
  - are not acknowledging those pain points by kind
• 15:03
  - of peeling back the layers of the onion,
• 15:05
  - that friction that shows up through their verbatim
• 15:08
  - comments,
• 15:09
  - then we're going to be falling behind quickly
• 15:12
  - in this ever evolving health care world. So
• 15:15
  - for us, we have dashboards a 100%. We
• 15:18
  - look at those dashboards, but it's less about
• 15:22
  - data and metrics
• 15:24
  - and becoming more about
• 15:26
  - what are
• 15:27
  - the the comments that are being left, what
• 15:29
  - is the sentiment of those comments, and how
• 15:32
  - can we use that to propel us a
• 15:34
  - little faster in our improvement journey.
• 15:38
  - Mhmm. Really looking at the comprehensive
• 15:41
  - picture of patient experience with metrics being just
• 15:43
  - one piece of that, but really going deeper
• 15:45
  - to hear the patient's voice.
• 15:47
  - You know, I think our patients, we have
• 15:50
  - to remember, they're willing to give us this
• 15:52
  - feedback.
• 15:53
  - And so I always look at it as
• 15:55
  - a gift to us as a health care
• 15:58
  - system.
• 15:59
  - They're gonna rate us, they're gonna give us
• 16:01
  - scores, but those that really take the time
• 16:03
  - to write out or type out their comments
• 16:06
  - or participate
• 16:07
  - in our advisory councils,
• 16:09
  - that's a gift and we should be taking
• 16:11
  - that and using that to fuel the work
• 16:14
  - that we're doing versus just looking at data
• 16:16
  - metrics all day every day.
• 16:20
  - Mhmm. You make such a great point and
• 16:22
  - it's clear just in in talking to you
• 16:24
  - for the last fifteen minutes, you're such a
• 16:26
  - wealth of wisdom and and knowledge in the
• 16:28
  - experience,
• 16:30
  - environment. So thank you so much for joining
• 16:32
  - us on the podcast to share more about
• 16:33
  - all of the great work that you're doing
• 16:35
  - at Novant. We so appreciate it. Thank you,
• 16:37
  - Mackenzie. I enjoyed the conversation with you today.
• 16:40
  - I did as well. Looking forward to keeping
• 16:42
  - it going. Absolutely.