Reinforcing personalized pediatric care

Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle and XPLANE created a deliverable that puts patients and their families first by addressing key questions, concerns and outcomes surrounding a surgical procedure.

Challenge | Recognizing the sensitive nature of a family’s time at Children’s, the medical center puts a strong emphasis on performance improvement and ensuring positive interactions between patients, families and staff. Children’s believes that even one less than optimal event in a series of interactions can have a significant negative impact on the value of the relationship. To address this criticality, Children’s wanted to communicate in a clear manner what the entire family experience is when a child undergoes general surgery at the medical center. It was important to present the experience from the view of the patient and his or her family rather than through a hospital-centric perspective.

Action | Following the strategic discovery session to fully understand Children’s needs and objectives, XPLANE created a visual map of what the family of a child who is being treated at the medical center will experience. By walking through nine steps the map clearly depicts each stage in preparing for, having and recovering from surgery. This allows families to easily understand the otherwise daunting and scary process, and gives them the opportunity to get clarity around any of the steps from medical center staff. The nine steps are: Original ER or doctor visit, scheduling, clinic visit, before surgery, surgery, after surgery, inpatient care, going home and follow-up visit. The map clearly demonstrates the value Children’s places in its patients and their families and its commitment to make every interaction, from initial phone call to follow-up visits, a pleasing experience. It also reinforces Children’s focus on timeliness, convenience and partnership.

Results | The map has been well received by families coming to Children’s for general pediatric surgery. It has accomplished the goals of promoting exceptional care and a strong partnership between the medical center and family of the patient. The piece has also been incorporated into internal presentations at the medical center. The next step is to roll the map out on a large scale throughout the center.

“Going through the consulting session with XPLANE allowed us to hone in on the nine critical steps that we wanted to clearly communicate to families at the medical center. We recognize that having a child undergo surgery is a life altering experience for families and we want to do everything in our power to promote their peace of mind and understanding; we feel this map helps accomplish that goal.”

—David Perry, vice president of marketing, Children’s Hospital