SHSMD 2016 was rife with phenomenal presentations. But one in particular stood out to me because, through one initiative and widespread culture shift, the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula (CHOMP) completely repositioned their brand from the perspective of their patient community—and earned a position in the top 2% for all hospitals nationwide for quality.
Before Excellence 24/7
The Affordable Care Act of 2010, according to Eric LoMonaco, mandates that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) roll out value-based purchasing (VBP) comprised of three elements:
- Clinical Process of Care
- Patient’s Experience of Care (HCAHPS)
- Outcome Measures
CHOMP is a 235-bed hospital for which HCAHPS accounts for 30% of their total VBP reimbursement risk: $1.3 million dollars over the next five years.
According to Mr. LoMonaco, the top three responses from the patient’s perspective of their care experience included:
- Unsatisfied patient leaves the facility without knowing whom to call for assistance
- Patient is discharged and completes a less than favorable survey
- Management team members could take up to six weeks to respond to concerned patients post-discharge
Mr. LoMonaco’s solution was based on the lightning-fast speed with which dissatisfied patients communicated with each other: Excellence 24/7, a program designed to rectify challenges in near-real-time, while patients are still in the building.
Excellence 24/7
- Instant communication initiated by the patient
- Anonymity for the patient
- Instant service recovery opportunities while the patient is still in the building
- Instant rewards for staff who exceed expectations
- Instant concerns are documented to share with staff for corrective action
Real-Time Actionable Feedback
- Averaging 5 calls per week
- Averaging 5 emails per week
- Averaging 3 QR code scans per week
- Response time for all?
- Five minutes or fewer
- Hospital team members were infused with high buzz
- Most importantly, patients have been impressed
National Recognition
When CMS awarded its inaugural Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating, CHOMP was awarded the highest rating: 5 stars. Only 102 out of approximately 4,600 hospitals across the country received 5 stars, positioning the CHOMP brand in the top 2%. Only 9 of 340 hospitals in California earned 5 stars, and CHOMP is the only 5-star-rated general acute-care hospital in northern and central California.
Consumerism in Healthcare
How CHOMP achieved their phenomenal results wasn’t complex; they simply leveraged the elegantly simple creative and consumer-based approaches other industries use to position their brands.
As Mr. LoMonaco closed his presentation, his words ring true across any industry: “Real-time consumer experience and…real-time action are possible to achieve, and have a dramatic effect on the consumer’s (patient’s) experience and perception.”
