How patient feedback shapes whole-person care at AdventHealth

For patients and families, a positive healthcare experience is shaped across many touchpoints -- from scheduling an appointment to understanding a care plan, from feeling safe during treatment to knowing someone will respond quickly when something doesn't go as planned.

At AdventHealth, that experience is rooted in the organization's mission of Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ and its commitment to caring for the whole person -- body, mind and spirit.

"A positive experience is one in which the patient's goals for their care are met and they feel supported on their journey toward wholeness," said Julie Rish, AdventHealth's chief experience officer. "That’s why we design our care experiences around providing high-quality, highly connected, coordinated and compassionate care that supports whole-person healing."

"We're holding ourselves accountable to delivering on our promise to help people feel whole."

AdventHealth approaches the patient experience through a collaborative model that includes systemwide blueprints, playbooks and role-based expectations -- tools that help define what good care looks like, who owns each part of the work and how teams can hold themselves accountable.

"We bring together the people who power the many different aspects of the healthcare experience to co-create solutions that we know will make a difference for our patients," Rish said. "And then we're holding ourselves accountable to delivering on our promise to help people feel whole."

Turning culture into action

AdventHealth's Service Standards describe what patients should expect from each interaction with a team member, helping translate culture into everyday behaviors. They include:

• Love Me
• Keep Me Safe
• Make It Easy
• Own It

For patients, those standards are felt in simple but meaningful ways: a doctor who explains a care plan clearly, a receptionist who notices anxiety before a procedure, a nurse leader who follows up quickly on a concern or a care team that works together behind the scenes to make an experience more personalized and peaceful.

Rish said that whole-person care means recognizing that people need more than clinical treatment alone.

"It's not enough to fix the broken arm," she said. "We need to connect with that person. We need to ensure that we care for the emotional and spiritual parts of suffering and understand how we can get them back to doing what they love."

Using feedback to improve care

Patient feedback is a critical part of how AdventHealth evaluates and improves the care experience.

AdventHealth care teams use comments, survey responses, dashboards, patient and family experience councils and other listening channels to better understand what patients value and where care can improve.

That commitment to listening and improving has earned AdventHealth recognition, including Leapfrog's Emerald Award and the Press Ganey Guardian of Excellence Award, reflecting its commitment to safe, connected and compassionate care.

Rish said that one of the most important developments has been getting feedback closer to the teams providing care.

During daily huddles, caregivers review dashboard data and recent patient comments to identify where care is being recognized and where they have opportunities to improve in real time, she said.

It also gives leaders a broader view of themes across the system, helping identify what's working well and where additional support, education or programming may be needed.

Patient and family experience councils bring patients and consumers into the early design of care experiences, rather than waiting to seek feedback after decisions have been made.

Scaling what works

As AdventHealth learns from patient feedback and from what works best at individual hospitals and care sites, the organization also works to scale successful approaches across the system.

"We're constantly bringing people across our system together to share best practices," Rish said. "We're creating a learning community where we're pushing each other to be better, we're sharing ideas with each other and we're lifting each other up."

Looking ahead, Rish said that she is especially focused on how AdventHealth can use analytics, artificial intelligence and technology to better connect insights from different sources and support more purposeful interactions with consumers.

But the central goal remains consistent: helping every person feel cared for in a way that is connected, compassionate and whole.

A visible reminder to care like family

The heart badge is one visible expression of that commitment.

"What's really special about AdventHealth is how we've put love at the forefront -- an expectation that we're going to love each person as a child of God with infinite value," she said. "It inspires how we see the person in front of us as if they're our own loved one."

The badge is a reminder to see the whole person -- beyond their physical health needs -- and care for them as you would a parent, child, spouse, sibling, friend or neighbor. Their experience, voice and dignity are deeply valued.

That love can be expressed in large and small ways: actively listening, being present when a patient wants to pray together, finding a creative way to make something easier, owning a concern or recognizing when someone needs comfort beyond clinical care.

"There is a permission to engage in a relationship that's much more meaningful than a transactional approach to care," Rish said. "It's very special."

That's the heart of the experience AdventHealth strives to create for patients and families -- care that listens, responds, improves and helps people feel whole.