Introduction
A major shift in delivering quality healthcare has occurred over the past three decades, with the patient and family becoming the center of focus. The philosophy of patient and family centered care (PFCC) is a belief that the right way to respect the patient and provide ultimate care occurs when the patient’s personal preferences and beliefs as a unique human, regardless of the health outcome, are considered warranted based on moral grounds. When utilizing this philosophy, the patient’s families are included in patient family centered care and are considered part of the team, along with the patient. Health care provider training and education is crucial for this model to be successful, as well as holding all clinicians participating in care accountable (Epstein & Street Jr., 2011).
The Institute for Patient-and-Family Centered Care defines PFCC as a new approach to planning, delivery and evaluating the health care provided. Information sharing, respect, dignity and mutual decision-making are key elements in defining how this approach works.
Many healthcare facilities struggle with finding a balance between providing excellent patient and abiding by the many regulatory requirements and regulations that impact patient care. An organizations reimbursement practices can also play a part in the way the patient is cared for. Data collected by completing the Patient and Family Centered Care Organizational Self-Assessment Tool may help an organization determine if their work practices are in line with best practices involved with providing patient-centered care.
A.
Business Practices
The financial success of an organization relies on a sturdy, strong and sound business plan for the facilities within the system. From planning, decision-making, communicating and recruiting for the facility, the key to success is a strong business plan. The hospital I analyzed is Tahoe Forest Hospital System with two community hospitals; one in Truckee, CA and the other in Incline Village, NV. The business practice of this system is the patient’s safety and needs first, while remembering this hospital is a business as well. The focus is on innovation and growth as well as patient retention. In this age of instant information through the internet, patients are using this avenue to make informed decisions regarding their healthcare. With a loyal following, our hospital focuses on keeping current and past patients happy and therefore decreases our need to spend money on acquiring new patients as well as benefitting from word of mouth referrals. Tahoe Forest has a very robust quality department that quickly responds to any patient and or family complaints, knowing that addressing a concern as soon as possible helps a patient feel they have been heard. We are currently a beta site for an app that allows instant feedback from our patients, rather it is a noise complaint, dietary issue or a compliment for staff, leadership is notified through the app and able to respond within a 30-minute time frame. Tahoe Forest is also very aware of the financial hardship healthcare can create for those we serve, and we have a very dedicated financial counseling department that contacts patients prior to surgery or elective procedures to answer all questions regarding the cost of these services, as well as navigates the insurance system for our patients to help ensure coverage. A new business practice we implemented last year is a daily 15-minute morning huddle with all of leadership. During this time, leaders from each department will share their department’s patient schedule, staffing issues, next available appointments for out-patient clinics, days since a fall, construction updates, quality updates, yesterday’s financial update as well as a yearly update. Since starting this morning huddle, we have seen a decrease in per diem staffing costs as we are able to borrow staff from other departments. Leadership has become more of a conducive team, while learning of what our peers are dealing with on a daily basis.
Regulatory Requirements and Reimbursement Impact
One of the most important and challenging issues facing healthcare organizations today is the ability to maintain and control federal regulation compliance costs. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid began tying the quality of care provided to the patient to payment of services in 1999 (Kohn, 2000). In an effort to increase healthcare quality, Medicare’s value-based system is linked to value-based purchasing. Hospital-acquired conditions and medical errors such as catheter-associated urinary tract infections, pressure ulcers and central line infections will no longer be covered and full reimbursement for the hospital stay will not be received. Quality indicators such as hand-washing statistics, vaccines, heart failure care and pneumonia care must be measured, and hospitals must be compliant to ensure the highest quality of care is provided to their patients. Pay for performance systems are based on performance and quality outcome measurements as well as relating to the patient experience, seeking to reward organizations and providers for creating a respectful and comfortable atmosphere for their patients (Sullivan, 2013). The aforementioned regulations can have negative and positive implications for a healthcare organizations finances. Hospitals total performance score are affected by not meeting goals leading to penalties or rewarded for good performance (Stanowski, Simpson, & White, 2015). While a positive environment for our patients is the focus of patient and family centered care, the financial impact to an organization may be great when implementing this new environment as a great deal of time and money will be needed for training and education, however, the long-term benefits and savings will be greater. An overall positive increase in a patient’s perception by providing a patient and family-centered experience results in an increase in patient satisfaction score and leads to a positive impact on a hospital’s reputation. With an increase in patients researching their choices in facilities, reading reports of other patient’s excellent experiences has a favorable impact on decision making for where they choose to have surgery, deliver their babies or receive treatments, this practice leads to a favorable financial impact for the organization. National patient safety goals set forth by accrediting bodies such as Hospital Facilities Accreditation Program and Joint Commission, are adopted to ensure we provide safe care for our patients (Joint Commission, 2016).
Insurance companies use concurrent and retrospective review of patient’s care while they are actually receiving the care. While still in hospitalized, insurance companies review patient’s chart to determine if treatment is necessary, if deemed unnecessary the insurance company may deny payment or even take back previous payments. Once the patient is discharged, a retrospective review typically occurs, and payments may be denied or retracted if deemed not necessary.
Healthcare services must be deemed a medical necessity prior to payment from insurance companies. Similar to the concurrent and retrospect reviews, insurance companies ensure prior to payment, the treatment met medical necessity. This process often requires peer to peer reviews between insurance physicians and treating physicians. In the event the insurance company determines the treatment is not deemed a medical necessity, often by lack of proper documentation and coding, the facility or physician may be charged with fraud.
Recovery audit contractors (RAC) work for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) who review claims by using analytic data tools to investigate healthcare records. Without consistent charting and coding by staff and physicians, a healthcare facility can encounter a RAC audit.
The readmission reduction program was established by the CMS to decrease readmissions to hospital inpatient status. CMS reviews data required of the program and then rewards facilities with readmission rates that are low, while penalizing facilities with high readmission rates. The same data allows hospitals and CMS to correlate staffing to outcomes. By paying close attention to patient outcomes, hospitals have a direct impact on their financial wellbeing.
Another CMS program, patient safety initiatives are updated yearly based on the previous year’s data. These initiatives are introduced to reduce safety issues and improve patient care in hospital inpatient settings. CMS tabulates and indexes the data provided by healthcare facilities on worksheets completed by the facilities. Healthcare workers play an important role in assisting the facility to achieve the current initiatives.
The aforementioned regulatory requirements have an impact on patient-centered care in many ways, such as financial impact to an organization by requiring ongoing education for staff and providers necessary to educate on new regulations and requirements, loss of revenue and penalties to a facility when fails to meet regulations and denied insurance claims following improper documentation and insurance clearance.
B. Self-Assessment
The Patient and Family Centered Care (PFCC) Organizational self-assessment tool was used to evaluate Tahoe Forest Hospital System’s ability to provide patient and family centered care. The self-assessment tool document is included in this paper.
B1. Setting Description
Tahoe Forest Hospital District (TFHD) is a public hospital district supported by the two communities served in Truckee, CA and Incline Village, NV. Both of the 25-bed hospitals are designated Critical Access Hospitals and are not for profit. For the purpose of this paper, the Truckee facility and community will be utilized. The areas served are primarily wealthy resort communities with the majority of homes occupied a small percentage of the time as they are second homes. TFHD serves a very culturally diversified community related to the number of homeowners who do not live in the area full time, thus coming to the area to enjoy Lake Tahoe and the surrounding fourteen ski resorts.
Adults age eighteen and above make up seventy-seven percent of the population of Truckee and the median age is 38.1 years. In 2015, 20% of Truckee’s adults had no health insurance, aligning with the national average of 20.4%. In the community, the largest age group to have healthcare coverage are those in the 55-64 age group, compared to nationally, children age 6-17 are most likely to have coverage. The largest employment venue is healthcare followed by the skiing industry and education. While the population of 16,231 in Truckee, CA have an above average household income salary of $79,971, the cost of living is 41% higher than national average. Truckee’s population is comprised of 78.1% Caucasian, 18.4% Hispanic, 1.4% Asian and the remaining 2% are unknown.
TFHD offers an impressive variety of services such as general surgery, orthopedic surgery, labor and delivery, extended care facility, pediatrics, cardiac rehab and a new separate and impressive, state of the art cancer center. Acute cardiac and stroke patients are stabilized and transported to a tertiary care center.
Hospitals adopt mission, vision and values statements to make a statement on what the focus of the facility is for the employees and those they serve. My facility has adopted the mission statement “We exist to make a difference in the health of our communities through excellence and compassionate patient and family centered care, in all we do” and the vision is “To serve our region by striving to be the best mountain health system in the nation” (Missions, Visions & Values, 2018). To help ensure we live up to our mission and value statement, our facility participates in benchmarking through the national organization, Press Ganey which compares our hospital to similar sized hospitals, allowing us to recognize areas for improvement. Tahoe Forest Hospital has a Patient and Family Advisory Committee welcoming both former patients, volunteers and employees to serve on the committee to be a part of changes and initiatives at the hospital.
Adults age eighteen and above make up seventy-seven percent of the population of Truckee and the median age is 38.1 years. In 2015, 20% of Truckee’s adults had no health insurance, aligning with the national average of 20.4%. In the community, the largest age group to have healthcare coverage are those in the 55-64 age group, compared to nationally, children age 6-17 are most likely to have coverage. The largest employment venue is healthcare followed by the skiing industry and education. While the population of 16,231 in Truckee, CA have an above average household income salary of $79,971, the cost of living is 41% higher than national average. Truckee’s population is comprised of 78.1% Caucasian, 18.4% Hispanic, 1.4% Asian and the remaining 2% are unknown.
B2. Strengths and Weaknesses
Leadership/Operations Domain
In the domain of leadership/operations, one strength identified at TFHD is the clear expectations, measurement and accountability of patient and family centered care. A culture of support is established starting with a liaison visit from the Patient and Family Advisory Committee where respect for individual preferences and individuality are identified related the patient’s disease or injury. During this visit, a brochure is given to the patient and or family members present that states our facilities commitment to patient and family centered care, this information is also present in each patient room. Once the individual preferences are identified by the liaison this information is shared with the healthcare team and reminders are posted on dry erase boards in the patient rooms. These dry erase boards are also utilized for communication between patients, family members and providers. Compliance with regards to the patient and family wishes are measured by management rounding, liaison visits and patient satisfaction survey scores. All inpatients are encouraged to download an app on their smart phones that allows instant feedback regarding patient care provides, environmental or support services issues. For those without a smart phone, or who wish not to download an app, a tablet is offered so they may participate in the instant feedback program. The expectation for management is a thirty-minute response to all patient complaints. Former patients and family members who are a part of the Patient and Family Advisory Committee help in developing policies that support patient and family involvement in care. No weaknesses were identified in this domain.
Mission, Vision, Values Domain
Another strength identified is within the mission, vision and values domain with the posting of our mission statement; “We exist to make a difference in the health of our communities through excellence and compassionate patient and family centered care, in all we do”, in prominent areas throughout the facility for all visitors, patients and family members to see, as well as printed on brochure given to the patient that also lists the patient and family rights and responsibilities.
A definite strength is identified in the advisor domain where we include the patients and family members on our hospital Patient and Family Advisory Committee. This group is a very involved and active group which includes; hospital employees, volunteers, former patients and family members and meets monthly to discuss new programs, upcoming process changes and identifies opportunities for the hospital to be involved with community events. Each quarter, all members of the Patient and Family Advisory Committee are invited to participate in multidisciplinary safety rounds throughout the healthcare system. No weaknesses were identified in this domain.
Quality Improvement Domain
Tahoe Forest Hospital is a district hospital and supported by the community, as such all board meetings are open to the public and the public has an opportunity to speak at each meeting. During these meetings the administration team shares the hospitals strategic and operational plans. Patients are rounded on each day by a member of the management team and their families are welcome to participate during rounding. When a safety event occurs that may have or indeed caused harm to a patient, a disclosure team meets with the patient and or family to disclose the event. The patient and family are invited to a follow up meeting with the quality team, personnel involved and risk manager to discuss the event and voice any suggestions for improvement, they are then invited to be a part of any Quality Improvement initiatives that may arise from the incident. As members of the Patient and Family Advisory Committee, former patients and their family members are invited to attend IHI/NPSF conferences with a healthcare representative from the hospital. No weaknesses were identified in this domain.
Personnel Domain
While examining this domain, I was able to identify several strengths as well as two weaknesses. The clear expectations for physicians and staff for collaborative care involving the patient and their families are included in our performance appraisals and reiterated in monthly rounding with employees by leadership. As a department director, we round on patients and provide real time feedback to employees when a patient mentions their concerns or compliments. These comments are also included in annual performance evaluations with employees, at which time each employee signs a copy of their job description that includes the expectation of participation in patient and family focused care. The two weaknesses identified in this domain are the lack of patient and family participation in the interview process when hiring new employees and the lack of involvement in the new employee orientation process.
Environment and Design Domain
Recently, our facility completed a large addition to the Labor and Delivery Department. During the planning of this new wing, former patients were invited to several planning meetings with staff and physicians, to allow their input into the design of the new wing. The suggestions for sleep sofas in each patient room for family use, tablet availability for internet access, open nourishment stations and open visiting hours were all accepted and implemented. Each room has a listing of managements phone numbers to allow the patients to call if needed. Those same former patients also decided on the name “Woman and Family Center” for the new area. No weaknesses were identified in this domain.
Information and Education Domain
Kiosks are available throughout the facility for patient and family use, as well as the availability of tablets in patient’s rooms. These tablets have portals for the hospital information channel as well as health information portals and are also used to help educated the patient and families regarding their illness during their stay and discharge. Throughout the facility are health related brochures highlighting resources. Physicians and management have their phone numbers and email addresses on their business cards and many include their phone numbers. These cards are available, and each patient is encouraged to utilize this resource for voicing concerns, suggestions for improvement and complimenting staff either by phone or email. Patients are invited to participate in staff and physician education and have their cases presented in a forum. While the above mentioned are all strengths, the hospital lacks a resource/library for the staff and patients to use and this would be considered a weakness.
Diversity and Disparities Domain
In the communities of which our hospitals serve, the English language is primarily spoken, however 18% of the population does not speak any English and must rely on translation services. To allow immediate access to translation services for our patients with special communication needs, we use the MARTTI system to meet our patient’s needs. This easy one-touch usability design makes it easy and quick to have interpreting services immediately available for patients and staff both visually and audible. The service makes reports available for our quality team to measure the language needs of the patients we serve. Patient navigators are available for all patients including minority and underserved patients. All information available for patients and in all modalities are first subject to approval of the patient education team to ensure the material meets literacy requirements. This includes all consents and discharge instructions, which are also available in Spanish as that is the second most common language in our community. No weaknesses were identified in this domain.
Charting and Documentation Domain
A strength identified in this domain is the ability of for the patient and those designated by the patient, to have ready access to their electronic medical record through a patient portal. Currently, the access is limited though the portal to test results, physician notes to the patient, bill pay and email to the care providers, however a quality improvement initiative is in place to allow full access to one’s charts. An identified weakness is the lack of ability to the patient or family allowing them to chart within their own chart.
Care Support Domain
This hospital embraces the importance of family presence and participation in care to their family member and they are treated as members of the care team. There is encouragement from staff to family members to stay around the clock if desired by all. Families are also encouraged to participate in rounding and patient hand-off reports. Parents are allowed in the recovery room with their minor children. As mentioned above in the Quality Improvement domain, our facility has a disclosure team that meets with the patient and or family members when an event or even near-misses occurred, to explain and apologize for the event. This multi-disciplinary team includes physicians, administrators and directors who have received training from our facilities malpractice insurance providers in how to properly disclose events to patients and families. Outside of the operating rooms, family presence during a rapid response or resuscitation is encouraged when appropriate. As part of the admission process education is provided to the patient and family on how to activate the code button for rapid response. All patients receive a visit from a pharmacist who reviews the patient’s full medication record with the patient. No weaknesses were identified in this domain.
Care Domain
Patients and their families are happily encouraged to be a part of the healthcare team and to participate in the setting of goals for care as well as transitioning to care after discharge. Our staff are respectful to patients and families and educated both to our pain scale and together set expectations for pain control through medication or alternative modalities such as biofeedback, therapeutic touch, massage or acupuncture, all of which are available to our patients. No weaknesses were identified in this domain.
C. Area of Improvement
Although a few opportunities for improvement were identified using the PFCC tool, overall, I consider Tahoe Forest Health System to practice excellent patient and family-center care. One area for improvement identified that I would like to see improved upon, would be that of a team approach to on-boarding new employees. I believe by involving former patients and their family in the new employee orientation process we would be sending a positive message to any potential new employee as to our commitment to PFCC at our facility and this would lead to a positive impact for our patients and as well as new employees. The opportunity for new employees to hear patients and their families share their perception from their time as a patient in our hospital would help to set the scene for new employees and help them understand our commitment to team approach healthcare which includes the patient and family members. Beginning with the initial contact with a perspective employee, introduction to our PFCC model should be mentioned, followed up with further discussion during the interview process. This philosophy will help reinforce our expectation of listening and respecting the patient and families wishes and our commitment to keeping them informed and involved while honoring their preferences whenever possible. Furthermore, the introduction of former patients and their families during new employee orientation, will help to solidify our commitment to multidisciplinary team healthcare.
C1. Improvement Strategy
Formation of a multidisciplinary team will be the initial step in this improvement strategy. Including passionate members from various departments throughout the organization who are able to understand and commit to be a part of the correction of deficiencies related to patient and family centered care from identified within the hospital. During the initial recruitment phase, it will be imperative to include those with various skill levels, experience and backgrounds and include the best employees who are able to understand the weakness and the need to formulate a team willing to develop a strategy for change, identify a goal and agree upon methods to accomplish this goal. Including the team members in identifying the areas of improvement, agreed upon goals and the methods needed to achieve that goal should help to garner participation and excitement for those willing to participate and be change agents within the organization (Mennella & Woten, 2015). Following the identification of potential employee team members, a meet and greet type meeting should be established with introductions, sharing of experience and backgrounds, as well as what each team member would be able to bring to the project. The initial session should include a brainstorming session with goal setting that include identification of the issue we are addressing, data review, establishing meeting frequency and timing, budget allotments, and member responsibilities. By doing these steps at the initial meeting, future meetings will be smoothers with each member knowing their role and responsibility, leading to more organized and productive meetings. Updating senior leadership of the team and members, the planned change and steps to development of the change, communication, staff education and the timeline, will be imperative to success.
C1a. System or Change Theory
To institute the above needed changes within our facility that were identified while using the PFCC self-assessment tool, I choose to utilize three stage theory model developed by Kurt Lewin, known as Lewin’s Change Theory (Mennella & Woten, 2015). Lewin believed change is crucial for success of an organization and to implement change, three steps are needed; driving forces, restraining forces and equilibrium or more commonly known as: unfreeze, change, and refreeze. For this project, I believe the Lewin theory is appropriate as it will require identifying the need for change and motivation for change by the team members (unfreezing), changing the beliefs of the people in the organization currently providing patient and family centered care, helping them to change those beliefs and practices (change), and finally establishing the new changes as policy (refreezing). Members of the multidisciplinary team dedicated to this project, will need to identify for each of the three stages, key people to implement the changes while focusing on the need for change and the benefits of changing, thus acting as a change agent.
C2. Financial Implications
Few changes within an organization are complete without a financial burden or implications, with this proposed change, there would be minimal financial impact. There would be no fee for former patients and their family members to connect with new employees at orientation by sharing their story of care while at our facility. Likely, there will be a combination of salaried and hourly employees on the team implementing the change and these members will be paid for their participation on the team. Management support will be key to allow these members time away from their assigned units and the need for personnel coverage. Having clear established goals and roles and keeping to a timeline will help minimize financial implications. With such a strong patient and family centered care environment already in place, the development of adding patients and families to the new hire orientation process should be an easy transition and not be very costly to the organization. Printing of posters and flyers to help educated the staff should be the only other cost incurred and would have minimal impact to the finances of the organization.
C3. Methods
Following the identification of the area for improvement and the goal, a questionnaire will need to be developed by the team to survey the staff, patients and families. Using a Likert scale with the range from strongly disagree to strongly agree this survey will be utilized to gather a baseline as well as following implementation of the new process to measure if we are accomplishing our goals. Examples of questions for the questionnaire will include questions regarding awareness of the proposed process change to include patients and family members in the new employee orientation, feelings towards our facilities current culture of PFCC, are we currently considering patient’s preference as part of our care plans, and the value of including patients and/or families participating in new hire orientation by sharing experiences with our employees. The initial survey will be available for thirty days and then tabulated with the team reviewing the results to evaluate the continued need for a process change. The survey will also be available via email to the staff and random former patients. Six months following the implementation of the change a follow-up survey will be utilized in the same manner to measure our success and determine the effectiveness of the improving patient and family centered care in our hospital. All new employees will evaluate the new orientation process immediately following and again at their 90-day evaluations.
D. Multidisciplinary Team
Team Member Role
Patient Care Advocate Team Leader
Two Patient Care Unit Nurses, one experienced and one new nurse. Assist Human Resources and the educator with developing new orientation program. Care documentation expert to review the new process impact to patient care at the bedside.
Representative from hospital education department. Review current orientation process and formulate new guidelines including patient and family representation with new hire orientation
Director of Patient Care Unit Liaison to administration and nursing support.
Patient Navigator Participate in formulating a plan and evaluate the effect of the new process on patients as they transition though our facility. Provide input for care management section of new employee orientation.
Accreditation/Quality Department Director Provide baseline patient satisfaction scores as well as scores following implementation.
Ensure compliance with federal regulations.
Ensure additional questions added to patient satisfaction survey inquiring as to increased awareness of PFCC.
Three volunteer Patients and/or family members Participate in new employee orientation by sharing stories from when they were a patient.
Human Resources Director Responsible for current orientation process and will be responsible for volunteer’s schedule.
Ad hoc members may be added to the team as deemed necessary and may include the Chief Nursing Officer, Chief Medical Officer, Infection Control Officer as well as representation from other disciplines, these representatives may offer valuable information from their area of expertise.
D1. Team Diversity
Patient centered care should be encouraged and embraces throughout the organization and including a diverse team in the process is imperative. Recognizing individual’s diverse background and opinions is an asset with any team that is planning for change. Acceptance and appreciation of other members differences should be recognized and embraced rather than ignored or dismissed. A more cohesive and positive work environment is created when employees understand each other better. Fostering a healthcare employee’s positive attitude toward diversity will create a healthy work place and have a positive impact on the outcomes for the patient as well as the organization. A competent and culturally diverse team allows for various opinions and enhances team creativity when the patient and families are involved. To successfully planning and instituting change that effects everyone in the workplace, it is imperative to include members from both genders, various ages, different levels of seniority, national origins, ethnicity and race. Recognizing each individual for their input to the team based on personal experiences shows diversity respect.
D2. Leadership Theories
I am very familiar with Transformational Leadership, as the Director of Surgical Services, our leadership team ascribes to this style of leadership. Designed to help lead a diverse group of individuals, this leadership theory is recommended for Magnet facilities and our team chose to adopt the theory as well. An inspirational, emotionally intelligent and self-confident leader are skills that lead to becoming a successful leader (Hutchinson & Jackson, 2013). The transformational leader leads a team by creating and communicating visions, therefore supporting a good style of leadership throughout change processes. Our team’s efforts will be served by using the transformational leadership style when creating a new orientation process that will include former patients and families. Rightfully so, some employees within the organization may have concerns regarding the sharing of patient care stories from former patients and families and the team will need to include facilitating the goal of this change process and help the employees understand the need for new hires to buy in to our present PFCC model. The importance of the team communicating the benefits of including patients and families in new employee orientation will help employees to understand the benefit our hospital’s mission, vision and goals and the focus on patient focused care. The team will need to establish and share the goals and projects steps to success prior to implementing the new process.
D3. Implementation of Strategy and Communication to Organization
Implementation of Strategy Responsible Party Communication to Organization
Complete PFCC Organizational Tool Team Leader Posters and emails announcing the project
Form a Multidisciplinary Team Senior Leadership Town Hall meetings announcing team, posters and emails
Conduct Pre-implementation survey Designated members of the team Survey monkey email link
Tabulate Results Accreditation/Quality Department Director Email and leadership meetings
Team Project Development All members of the team Email and leadership meetings
Establishment of implementation date Team Lead Leadership forums, emails announcing implementation date
Ensure a six-month post-implementation survey following implementation Designated members of the team Survey monkey email link
D4. Communication to Organization
Included in above table.
D5. Tools for the Team
Learning various personalities of the different individuals on the team will be key to awareness of how each member thinks and operates and leads to team cohesiveness. While learning of the team members it is important to become aware of your individual methods as well and can help prevent dissension and tension while working together. One tool that would be helpful to use is the Kiersey Temperament Sorter that allows the discovery of each members personality and is available from Kiersey.com. Differences in personalities can interfere with the efficiency of the group and by learning about other team members personalities, can lead to adaptation in order to not impede productivity. Four temperament groups are identified with this particular tool; Artisans, Guardians, Idealists and Rationals, understanding and sharing the definitions will build a better appreciation of each individual. The results from identifying different personalities will be a great refence to assigning role as you are able to utilize the strong suit from each member once their personality style is established. The Keirsey tool helps to build trust while sharing personal traits and will allow team members to feel comfortable in voicing their opinions, while also allowing the team leader to recognize barriers and how each individual should be approached (Keirsey.com, n.d.)
Conclusion
Staff education in any area of healthcare will result in measurable improvements and a variety of outcomes. Empowerment of employees when provided with the tools needed to give the best possible quality care within their scope of practice. Healthcare organizations are now more than ever, facing constant change. Having a safe PFCC environment while keeping up with ever changing federal regulations and guidelines and maintaining compliance with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) is an ongoing process. Supporting members of an organization and ensuring they have the tools and support to be change agents, allowing them to voice their opinions in what is best for the patients, and empowering a workforce that is more diverse than ever will help keep an organization compliant and current. Patient and family centered care when provided in an organization communicates to our patients and community that we value their input and will advocate for them to receive the tools necessary to achieve and maintain optimal health leading to higher patient satisfaction.