Building high-performance teams seems to be the focus in nearly every industry today. Next generation collaborations are being formed at an astonishing rate. Innovative healthcare providers are teaming with non-traditional partners in a targeted effort to modernize the Patient Experience. While consumers are finding new ways to purchase healthcare services, an opportunity still exists to improve the overall healthcare journey. More specifically, patient outcomes can be improved by getting more personal with each patient via readily available personality assessment tools.
PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
As new digital health technologies continue to launch, we can seemingly be lured away from some of the basic elements of healthcare that make it so unifying to us all – the people. At the core of medicine is the complexity and beauty of each person being a unique individual. Finding effective ways to empower each patient on their journey can be challenging. There is no technological shortcut to build an authentic relationship with a patient, but there are some well established tools that can set the foundation for this to happen. Enter, Personality Assessments…or put another way, a platform to get to know a patient before applying generalizations, assumptions, or worse, no voice at all.
CAPTURING ACTIONABLE DATA
Personality Assessments are nothing new and chances are you have encountered these at some point in your career. The most popular programs like Myers-Briggs and DISC offer insights into better understanding ourselves and others. This can go a long way in determining how to build high-performing teams or how to create an environment conducive to reaching successful team outcomes. Imagine being surrounded with a care team that understands your personal intricacies beyond your basic insurance card or Electronic Health Record (EHR). While information about personality preferences exists in abundance today, it currently goes uncaptured and thus not used. The opportunity to improve care using established personality assessments is enormous but requires well thought out implementation plans. This includes determining what, where, when, and how Patient Experience personality assessments can be integrated into a care pathway.
APPLYING PERSONALITY ASSESSMENTS TO HCAHPS EFFORTS
Formalized Patient Experience programs have become the norm in many healthcare institutions due to the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) initiative established in 2006. This 29-question survey administered to patients in hospitals aims to provide patients’ perspectives of care for comparison with other hospitals throughout the U.S. By publicly reporting the survey results, the HCAHPS program is striving to improve care and performance accountability. Could using Patient Experience personality assessments offer a solution to improve HCAHPS metrics? According to Situation Positive Co-Founder and Patient Experience leader, Matt Cavallo, “Finding ways to better connect with patients and understanding their individual preferences is key to improving engagement and reaching better outcomes.” He goes on to say, “we need to continue to explore new ways that empower the patient voice.”
The healthcare onboarding process is critical for establishing the foundation for a successful Patient Experience. Understanding a patient’s communication preferences, learning styles, and overall personality traits allows for a high-performing care team to be constructed around the needs of that patient. For example, a physician empowered with a patient’s personality assessment could potentially determine the most effective way at influencing that person’s behavior. Uncovering a patient’s preference for direct communication styles could help a care coordinator select the staff members. Turning to professional sports teams offers some examples of where performance accountability and determining the right lineup for a team takes centerstage.
LEARNING FROM THE PROS (NFL HALL OF FAMER)
According to NFL legend and Hall of Fame member Willie Lanier, building high-performance teams on the gridiron is applicable to all industries. “Building a Super Bowl championship team is no easy task. It can only be achieved when you understand what makes each individual contributor tick. There’s a team chemistry element that is extremely complex and demands specific attention to detail. All industries have the opportunity to build championship caliber teams if they are willing to invest in the strategy of it all.”
Mac Hull, Founder of InnerZone, says that professional sports teams and the military have been using elements of personality assessments to build their teams for years. “The key is understanding the intricacies and nuances of team dynamics. Our technology was designed to allow leaders to create the best opportunity for success to be achieved.” Hull has an appreciation for how building great teams translates seamlessly from athletics to the business world. “Team chemistry reports provide specific indicators as to how a team will perform on the field, in the classroom, and in the boardroom. Personality assessments provide insights that can give teams an advantage towards reaching a shared objective, regardless of what industry a team might be working in.”
InnerZone is now experiencing demand from new industries outside of professional and collegiate sports that seek an online easy-to-use personality assessment tool. Their system allows administrators to play coach and assemble a high-performance lineup to give the team the best chance for optimal success. Imagine if this type of thought was given to the physician, nurse, pharmacist, and care coordinator assigned to a patient’s team. “InnerZone technology is tailor-made to build highly specialized care teams for patients,” says Hull.
WE ARE ALL PATIENTS, WE ALL DESERVE A GREAT TEAM
The Patient Experience is an extremely unifying force as we are all a patient at some point in our life. It is paramount that healthcare continues to explore best practices from other industries in the quest to improve the overall patient journey. Personality Assessments offer an interesting solution for organizations seeking to improve Patient Experience metrics. The stakes are high in healthcare, and your teams’ starting lineup matters.
Building customized championship caliber care teams for each patient will set a foundation for success that new digital technologies can help maximize. The right teammates, the right equipment, and the right play call.
