There’s a well-known saying in the medical world, “sometimes cure, help often, always comfort.” It tells all medical professionals that healing patients is not limited to only treating diseases or affected areas, it is also about providing care and attention to lovingly help patients advance on the road to beating their illness.

This concept matches the belief of “improving humanistic clinical care as an important basis for improving care quality, maintaining patient rights, and building the doctor-patient relationship.” In October this year, Beijing United Family Hospital’s (BJU) nursing team hosted a forum titled, Doctor’s Healing for You: A Forum on Improving the Patient Experience. The purpose of this forum was to share the United Family Healthcare nursing model and success stories with industry colleagues as well as exploring new ways to improve the patient experience. Almost 150 nursing professionals from Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Xi’an, as well as many other areas were in attendance.

The forum was hosted by Ms. Chen Lixin, ACNO of BJU. Ms. Shen Xiaoyan, UFH Vice President of Nursing, and Ms. Sylvia Pan, VP/General Manager of BJU, and all made opening speeches.

Shen Xiaoyan said that in the 22 years since the founding of UFH, the UFH model continues to be centered on the patient. The patient’s needs are at the core, with a focus on details, and providing excellent care for the patient in every aspect. This is a key part of the culture of United Family Healthcare and is integrated into the everyday work of every UFH employee. Ms. Shen mentioned that she hopes that, through this forum, excellent care like this could flourish throughout China so that a higher quality of care and experience is available for more patients.

 

In her welcome speech, Ms. Pan described 22 years of mutual development where she grew professionally alongside UFH, in her roles and positions as well as her beliefs. She shared the growth process of the UFH brand of medical care and acknowledged the critical mission and function of the nursing staff at the hospital saying that, “Nurses are the best managers.”

As the forum commenced, Ms. Shen shared the ideas behind the concept of patient-centered care. She talked about the core values of UFH and summarized eight principles behind patient-centered care, and how based on these eight principles, the corresponding patient-centered service and practice have been extended to form a nursing model unique to United Family Healthcare. She emphasized how the continuity of excellent care could provide patients with a better healthcare experience.

Ms. Hou Yan, CNO of BJU, discussed the role of nursing managers in the patient experience. She said that “management comes first in elevating the patient experience. Improving the patient experience is key to the hospital’s reputation, as well as critical to improving patient loyalty and the brand of the hospital. Surveying and monitoring the patient’s needs in all areas and understanding the patient’s experience should be highly valued by the hospital administrators. When the leaders set the tone, the followers will align themselves, follow suit and say, “They’re doing this, so I’m going to do that too!”

Ms. Lu Chi, ACNO of BJU, shared a topic of “building a high level of trust is key to safer care.” She spoke of patient safety being at the core of a nursing manager’s role, as it is the only core value, all care services should center on the patient’s safety. In her speech, she discussed factors affecting patient safety, and the key factors in building a culture of safety, “trust, report, improvement.” She talked about the building of trust as the foundation behind a high level of safety and reliability, and shared related practices in building trust at UFH.

Ms. Xing Guangjun, ACNO of BJU, explained in her speech the concept of “providing warmth with focus on details in clinical care,” UFH’s treatment workflow, and its unique continuous medical services model. He emphasized the goal of service as “starting from the patient, and ending with patient satisfaction,” analyzed how to evaluate success based on the details of clinical services, as well as demonstrating core UFH values in the details.

After a brief break for lunch, more sessions continued in the afternoon. Zhang Yifan, Nursing Training Associate Director, shared the topic of “building effective communication, improving patient experience” by using communication tools like AIDET – which stands for Acknowledge, Introduce, Duration Explanation, Thank You – and SBAR – which stands for Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation. These help to build effective communication skills, improve facilities and workflows leading to a better patient experience and improved treatment efficacy.

Ms. Miriam Brofman, Director of Patient Services and Relations in BJU, hosted a discussion on “The doctor and patient conflict and ways of repairing the conflict.” She said the patient service system is a key component of the hospital; it is a bridge between the medical professional and patients, and it plays an important role in improving the hospital’s reputation and client loyalty. She shared the multiple facets of client services, the importance of respect, ways to repair the service in unusual situations, and how to take measures to improve patient satisfaction.

The last part of the forum was conducted by the three chiefs of nursing. They shared the beliefs of having patients at the center of care, strict adherence to guidelines, providing a comprehensive system of care, and providing innovative medical care. Yu Yana, the Assistant Head Nurse of OBGYN, discussed in detail the Labor, Delivery, Recovery, Postpartum (LDRP) model that UFH pioneered in China, which includes easy check-in, waiting for labor, and post-labor care, demonstrating the three levels of care for patients at UFH.

Li Yan, Head Nurse of NICU, talked about ways to deal with anxiety and depression among parents of premature babies, as well as the “safe transfer” model, sharing success stories of the model.

Yuan Lihua, Head Nurse of Family Medicine, talked about the scope, environment, services, and the multidisciplinary care model at UFH, where the caring concept of “patient-centered care” is shown in four areas of family medicine: quality, safety, sense of value, and individual satisfaction.

At the end of the forum, an international patient was invited to talk about her experience at UFH. She also talked about her friends’ experience, and how she experienced first-hand the comprehensive, continuous, people-centered care of UFH medical professionals, and experienced their attention to detail and loving care. She mentioned in her sincere speech, her trust and gratefulness toward UFH’s medical professional.

After a full day of discussions, medical professionals at the forum shared their day on their WeChat Moments, expressing their gratitude to the forum organizers as well as praising the UFH experience.

Building a safe, respectful, comfortable, and people-centered environment, where patients’ expectations are met and even exceeded is the goal for every nursing professional at UFH. Following “ICARE” core values, UFH pledges to continue to innovate, care for, respect, pursue excellence, and provide trustworthy and loving medical care.