1. After reading the case study, I did not realize how vital walkthroughs are for the benefit of the facility. The feedback that this hospital got from this simple walkthrough was astounding. For example, the hospital was not keeping the bathrooms clean and that by this action it does affect what the patient thinks of the hospital. Also not being able to give directions to family members should have never had happened. The doctor even said that's how he was treated at his ED was going to make him need care. The values of walkthroughs can completely change the hospital to make it a better place for the patient care and quality of the overall hospital. The significance of this walkthrough did greatly improve the hospital's level of quality care. The first thing the hospital walkthrough made him realize was the "patient" aka the doctor had never walk through the patient's entrance of the hospital. As a patient, he called the hospital for example and was told that he was having an acute asthma attack in the Operation Center and was put on hold for several minutes then transferred his call to ED. The second thing the walkthrough found was that family members were trying to get information on the phone from a doctor and tried to get medical directions, but that the staff member was unable to give them instructions so and they transferred him to another person to get directions and the instructions given were incorrect directions. The third thing the walkthrough provided to the hospital was all of the signage for directions around the outside of the hospital were covered by plants and shrubbery, so no one knew which direction to go. Once arriving at the ED, it was chaos, and very filthy. One account said it felt like they were going to the county jail. The one point that stood out to me is that a family member went into the bathroom and it was so dirty, and they thought how could they care for my family if they can't even keep the restrooms clean. I believe this is one of the most important parts of the walkthrough because after all, they've been through already if they can't even have a clean bathroom what does this to say about the doctor's level of care in the hospital. Are they following proper procedures to disinfect and make sure everything is clean? The final thing that they found after conducting their walkthrough was that there were no hooks for their clothes to be hung when they had to change into a patient's gown. They have to throw their clothes onto the floor. The doctor even said that he always thought they were neglected for just throwing the clothes on the floor, but he didn't realize that there were no hooks or hangers for the clothes to be stored properly. I believe if they would make just these simple improvements like cleaning the bathrooms, making sure the patients have hooks in their room, giving proper directions to give family members follow up proper care instructions their ED would improve rapidly, and patient level of care would improve greatly.
2. The difference between patient satisfactory and patient experience is how the values are prioritized. Patient experience is going above and beyond to make sure the patient is satisfied and is happy with the services that the hospital has provided for them. Patient satisfaction is more of the outcome measure of how they were treated and is sometimes is a process measure that is done. In some cases patient satisfaction can be a negative outcome but still have a positive patient experience. This means that the patient satisfaction can include true and false positives. The one that is most meaningful to patients is their patient experience. I believe patient experience is more valuable because if the patient is not happy with their experience, then the hospital did not go above and beyond to make sure everything was taken care of for the patient. The patient in turn isn't going to talk highly of the hospital, and the bottom line is I am not going to be satisfied and happy. The largest and widest marketing device I believe in healthcare is by word of mouth. If the patient has a bad experience at the hospital, they're going to talk about it to their family members and everyone else who would listen to them complains. Same goes if the patient had a great experience at a hospital if everything was amazing, and the hospital went above and beyond to make sure all their needs were met will are also going to tell people about their experiences, and more people are more likely going to want to make a choice to come to your hospital instead of going to somewhere else. If you just focus on patient satisfaction you're only going to get the outcome measure or process measure not what the patient is going to say to other potential patients.