LAKEPORT >> After winning a grant from the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) and forming the Patient Experience Action Community (PEAC), along with eight other safety net clinics in California, Lake County Tribal Health (LCTH) has worked during a two-year period to improve its patient experience.
LCTH was guided through the improvement process by experts from the Experience Innovation Network during 2012 and 2013. During this period they focused on improving customer service and communication within the clinic.
In 2012, LCTH focused on researching and evaluating the ways it could improve its services, according to Ernesto Padilla, the executive director of LCTH. Studies were performed to measure how long patients were waiting and anonymous satisfaction surveys were conducted through www.surveymonkey.com. Monthly all-staff, team-building exercises were also implemented, which involved employees in making LCTH a better place to work, according to the CHCF report on the improvements.
LCTH identified areas where it could be more efficient and found that several of its patients were unaware of some of the services the clinic offered, Padilla stated.
In 2013, LCTH started working to implement changes and monitor and quantify the center”s progress. The clinic began using paperless check-in and check-out processes, made other changes to cut down patient wait times and produced an array of materials detailing the tools patients can use to navigate through the clinic”s services. The clinic also made the waiting room more comfortable and began checking in on patients waiting for their doctors at more frequent intervals.
The improvements aimed to benefit both the clinic”s patients and its employees, Padilla said, as “the happier the staff is, the better customer service they”ll provide.”
The changes resulted in a 5-percent decrease in the volume of patient complaints and the positive word of mouth created a 45-percent jump in the volume of new patients, according to the CHCF report. Additionally, staff”s net willingness to recommend the center as a place to work increased by 360 percent.
While the grant and work with Experience Innovation Network has been completed, LCTH will “continue the improvement process by continually looking at ourselves from an outside perspective,” Padilla said. “That grant helped us put quality improvement, monitoring and practice-sharing systems in place that we can continue using.”
In terms of its future goals, LCTH is working toward “expanding its services, focusing on specialty care and analyzing where areas of need are,” Padilla said.
LCTH will also be adding a pediatric center in 2015, located at the old Blockbuster building in Lakeport, according to Padilla.
