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[Written by Naheed Ali, MD, PhD]

January 14, 2023 / Memphis, Tennessee - Along with cutting-edge technology and the latest approaches to clinical care, Luke's Hospital employs another innovative tool to provide high-quality health care to the community: soliciting feedback from patients and their families on how to improve the hospital's day-to-day operations.

Luke's Hospital has had a Patient and Family Advisory Council since 1989. This council collaborates with hospital administration to enhance hospital care and operations. For instance, the advisory group recently made a project that aims to improve the number of patients seen in an outpatient clinic, shorten the time to transfer a patient from the emergency room to a hospital bed and optimize operating room usage. The project focuses on the day-to-day operations of each department to ensure that they run smoothly.

"The best environment for healing is where patients, families, and health care providers can collaborate and support each other," said Athena Castro, CEO of Luke’s Hospital. "They serve as our partners, improving safety and quality by helping us understand the care experience and offering suggestions and insights that enable us to constantly improve it. We've created effective care plans with patients and families that represent their priorities and goals during a hospital stay by working together. Patients and their families are better prepared to manage their care and remain healthy when they leave the hospital."

Patients and their families are involved in several programs and processes at Luke’s Hospital, including:

Luke’s Hospital participated in a statewide initiative to expand its participation in the Patient and Family Engagement Collaborative, a partnership of the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems and the Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care, in order to enhance its efforts to include patients and their families in all stages of treatment. Participants from around the state got training on how to integrate patients and their families at all levels of care and shared best practices through in-person learning sessions, webcasts, and check-ins.

"There are numerous benefits to collaborating with patients and their families on ways to improve hospital operations," said Tristan Perie, president of quality and clinical services at the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems. "When hospital leaders participate in quality improvement projects, they no longer have to guess what patients value because they have representatives on the team to ask." Patient and family advisers push the boundaries of what is possible by providing a fresh perspective and new ideas."

Involving patients and their families has yielded positive outcomes across the country. A new study published in the Journal of Patient Experience examined data from over 3,000 hospitals in the United States and discovered that improved patient experience is linked to better clinical outcomes, such as lower rates of unplanned readmissions within 30 days and lower rates of in-hospital complications.

About Luke’s Hospital

Luke’s Hospital is regarded as Tennessee's leading and most respected healthcare institution. Luke’s Hospital thinks that comfort and a positive experience are essential in the pursuit of health and recovery, and its patient rooms are designed with that in mind. Luke's Hospital is outfitted with the finest available equipment that is tailored to the needs of the patients. Even though they offer bespoke services such as a select menu, a private butler, and cutting-edge living amenities for a restorative space ideal for healing, they have become a popular choice for patients requiring hospital care.

Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems (OAHHS) Information

The Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, founded in 1934, is a statewide, nonprofit organization that collaborates with local, state, and national healthcare leaders, businesses, citizen coalitions, and other organizations to improve Oregon's healthcare community.

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