Patient and Family Insights on Patient Experience Shared by The Beryl Institute

New White Paper Highlights Importance of Including Patient Voices in Healthcare Improvement Efforts

Dallas, Texas (PRWEB) May 22, 2013

The Beryl Institute releases its latest white paper,Voices of Patients and Families: Partners in Improving Patient Experience, in an effort to highlight the importance of including patient input and listening to and acting on patient feedback when planning and evaluating patient experience efforts.

The paper shares insights on patient experience gained in speaking with 18 courageous patients and family members from healthcare practitioners to patient advocates. More than 450 pages of interview transcripts were collected for the paper, which includes a broad selection of quotes, statements and stories from contributors based on the following questions: 

• How do you define the patient/family experience?
• Why do you believe a focus on patient experience is (and should be) central to healthcare today?
• What are the most important efforts healthcare organizations can take on to address patient experience?
• What do you see as the role/responsibility of patients/families in supporting/informing patient experience efforts?
• What do you see as the greatest roadblocks to effectively addressing patient experience and what would you say are/would be some of the greatest supports of success?
• What advice do you have for healthcare leaders working to address the patient experience in their organization?

Nearly all of the contributors have dealt with chronic or severe illnesses and offer perspectives that arise from intense and long exposure to healthcare systems around the world. Their comments stem from both personal experience and what they have observed while engaging in the causes they address.

“The contributors’ perceptions of the healthcare system provide an opportunity for readers to gain new insights on how to deliver the experience that patients expect,” said Jason Wolf, President, The Beryl Institute. “They remind us that the patient experience is both universal and unique, and that there has to be active engagement across the care continuum to be sure all voices are heard.”

The paper is a companion to earlier publications in the Voices series including Voices of the C-Suite, Voices of Practice and Voices of the Future. A common theme across all the Voices papers is the acknowledgement that a crucial element of any healthcare worker’s role is the ability to listen, to hear and to act on the voices of all involved in the patient experience.

To download the white paper, visit http://www.theberylinstitute.org/?page=PUBS .