During the COVID-19 pandemic, patient care mattered more than ever. Unfortunately, patients’ perceptions of care have slipped downward since 2020. According to recent research by Press Ganey, patients were less likely to recommend their healthcare experiences to family and friends.
To get the patient experience right, long-term care facilities must account for the patient as a whole. With a whole-person care approach, patients aren’t just patients; they are people with unique needs and priorities. In other words, long-term care facilities can’t provide comprehensive healthcare without caring for people as individuals.
The importance of understanding the patient as a whole
A whole-person healthcare approach directly affects the patient experience. Research supports this: According to The Beryl Institute, the most significant factor influencing the patient experience is how patients and family members are treated and communicated with.
That’s why we aim to facilitate connection and alleviate families’ concerns for their loved ones through our Family Matters program. For instance, the staff at the Briarwood Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Massachusetts conducts virtual care navigation meetings to help families understand what patients’ experiences look like at the facility.
When long-term care patients feel cared for and seen, their experiences are smoother and more enjoyable. What’s more, the patient experience often determines whether long-term care facilities can attract and retain patients. Without a whole-person approach, healthcare facilities are just buildings where people go to receive treatment. But when patients enjoy their stays and trust personnel, the building is more likely to feel like a home. This helps foster engagement and loyalty.
Team members must get to know patients and their families to deliver the best long-term care experience. Doing so helps patients feel truly at home and ensures their happiness. Facilities should also implement open-door policies so that patients feel comfortable talking about their concerns, needs, and wants.
How to enhance the patient experience through whole-person care
Valuing the patient as a whole is key to providing the best long-term care experience. Here’s how facilities can ensure they’re offering care that’s tailored to each individual patient:
1. Always ask the patient, “What is important to you?”
When it comes to the patient experience, long-term care facilities must center care around patient needs. To provide excellent care, facility team members should avoid becoming desensitized to their patients’ needs and instead maintain the highest levels of respect. Patient wishes must remain at the forefront of service and communication. And no two care recipients are the same.
Additionally, facilities have to remember that great care is built on relationships. Relationships make patients feel like people, so interactions with patients should never feel like transactions. Nurses and other team members need to help patients feel well taken care of.
2. Listen to patients and get to know them.
Although it takes less time to simply address a patient’s needs and move on to the next person, a meaningful patient experience is more engaging. The patient experience is driven by how team members treat patients and each other, along with the quality of care. Take the time to ask patients about family, friends or hobbies. Communication plays a huge role in ensuring that patients feel like people first.
Ultimately, patient care challenges teams to treat patients and one another as human beings and individuals. Without the relationship component, healthcare becomes cold and impersonal. A little communication goes far in long-term care.
3. Help patients feel safe.
Along with the personal aspects of the patient experience, facilities must maintain high standards for the delivery of care. Safety standards matter now more than ever. Ensuring patient safety requires collaboration, communication, and cooperation from every team member.
For example, the team at Ochsner Health held weekly huddles to review cleanliness and safety precautions and made patients aware of these measures. We started a Care Safely program at Marquis to reduce patient exposure to infection, support independence via telemedicine, and involve loved ones through an app-based digital exercise program.
Part of patient safety and security is making sure people don’t feel isolated. At the height of the pandemic, many facilities provided patients with iPads so they could visit with family and friends virtually. Other connection tools, such as VoiceFriend and LifeLoop, can also update loved ones on how patients are doing.
Whole-person care means treating patients like people. If the world learned anything in the past two years, it’s that healthcare requires compassion. By adopting a whole-person approach to long-term care, facilities can change lives and ensure patient satisfaction.
Marlene Sheehy is a registered nurse and the vice president of strategic development at Marquis Health Consulting Services, which provides administrative and consulting services to skilled nursing facilities throughout the continental United States.
The opinions expressed in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News guest submissions are the author’s and are not necessarily those of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News or its editors.
