What does the patient experience mean to you? - Third place submission

Time & Date

Monday, March 20, 2023

We asked our employees, what does the patient experience mean to you? Numerous essays were submitted, all displaying incredible insight and inspiration. Read below the submission that was awarded second place in our essay contest. 

The “patient experience” is very complex with many moving parts that have an indirect and direct impact on the life of the patient.  From our perspective, we tend to focus on what “we” do and strive to be the best and deliver high quality care which provides us with great outcomes.  But when we take a step back, and widen our lens, we can truly see an opportunity and challenge to be a better champion for our patient.  To make a deep impact on the quality of their life.  The patient experience is the journey along the continuum of care and their interaction with the healthcare system.

As we know, our healthcare system, to a lay person, can be challenging.  It is continuously changing and evolving with new concepts and technology.  Just as it evolves, so does the patient with age.  This can become even more challenging for our elderly population. 

The patient experience is not just their interaction with US or THEM.  I think of a volleyball game.  There are many players on both sides of the net that have a direct effect on the patient through their continuum of care.  When one player drops the ball, it obviously has a detrimental effect on the patient experience.

I see two teams that are Internal and External.  On one side we have the Internal Team.  It consists of the patient, family, caregiver, transportation, food, medications, spiritual, mental, and their social circle. On the other side, there is The External Team made up of the Primary Care, Specialists, Pharmacy, Home Health, DME, Insurance, Hospice, Hospital, Rehab, and Nursing Home to name a few with others on the bench waiting to be played or needed.

When our patient is receiving a service from you we do not know how their internal team affected them leading up to your experience.  We tend to think the patient has control over their team, but some are not able to mentally or socially. The internal team needs constant evaluation and is dependent on their SDOH (social determinants of health).  The patients experience with their internal team sets the stage how well they play with the external team.  Let’s talk about the external team.  If the external team doesn’t communicate or play well together the ball drops.  This makes for a short volleyball game, and no one wins.  Most importantly the patient experience is inadequate.  We must stop focusing on the individual experience one external team player has with the patient and look at the patient’s experience during the entire game and find out better ways to keep the ball in play.  This is a fresh opportunity and challenge presented before us. 

How can UT Health keep the ball in play to improve our member’s patience experience?