In a bid to elevate the patient experience and cultivate a patient-centered culture, Louisville, Ky.-based Baptist Health Medical Group introduced a new model to improve service quality and optimize patient outcomes.
The model, called the "tiered performance structure," establishes a framework for recognizing and rewarding exceptional patient experience performance, with a key component of the model being the development of a standard algorithm.
This algorithm categorizes all Baptist Health Medical Group practices into one of four performance tiers using data from patient surveys conducted by Press Ganey.
These four performance tiers include the "recognize tier" for those meeting their goal with a positive trajectory, "challenge tier" for those meeting their goal but stagnant or declining, "encourage tier" for those not meeting their goal but with a positive trajectory, and "focus tier" for those not meeting their goal and either stagnant or declining.
These tiers come with expectations and support offerings, including tailored staff training programs, mentorship opportunities, best practice sharing platforms, focused action planning and "monthly patient experience advance" meetings.
Baptist said that categorizing departments and practices in this manner enables patient experience leaders to easily prioritize their improvement efforts, as the level of support and engagement provided to front-line leaders varies based on their tier, with those not meeting goals and experiencing continued decline receiving the highest level of attention.
In just two years of this model being put into practice, it has showcased significant enhancements across various key performance indicators related to patient experience, according to the organization. Additionally, Baptist Health Medical Group now consistently achieves national top-quartile patient experience performance and receives increased positive feedback regarding the quality of care provided.
The full manuscript on this model was shared with Becker's and has been submitted to the Patient Experience Journal for consideration.