What do you believe will be the top three tangible, measurable, differences for our patients, providers, and health system if we are successful over the next 5 years? — Matt Van Der Tuyn, Director of Design and Strategy, Center for Health Care Innovation
A big key to taking Penn Medicine into the future is continuing our commitment to providing the best patient experience. Our Penn Medicine Experience team has already led our Health System through tremendous progress, from rolling out the “BE” standards to dramatically improving our Press Ganey “likelihood to recommend” ratings from the 23rd percentile to the 86th percentile in just five years. I know we can move the needle even further.
How will we keep improving? Speeding up the time to diagnosis for patients who come to us with complex illnesses — for example, through improved genetic and personalized techniques — is one area where I expect to see us move forward in the next few years. The faster we can both figure out what’s wrong and get patients into the right treatment, the faster our patients can get back to living healthier lives — and picking up the pace cuts costs, too.
A second way we’ll push to improve patient experience further is by enhancing access to care throughout our Health System, from all angles, whether that’s through expanded availability of telemedicine services or through greater access to advanced ambulatory care in practices across the region. The opening of our new, state-of-the-art outpatient facility in Radnor will be one milestone on that journey. We also want to make it easier for patients to get to our main campus in Philadelphia when they need to, so we’ve rolled out a new texting platform that lets people know when to leave for their appointments and where to park.
A third major area for us will be to continue thinking about how we can shift the location of care toward the least-acute setting necessary, both for patients’ convenience and to reduce costs. We already know that outpatient care is less expensive and more convenient than inpatient care. And through innovative programs like Heart Safe Motherhood and SOAR — which offer patients more options for care and communication with their medical team through home health care or text-messaging interventions — we can further leverage technology to provide the right level of care at the right time.
Thanks to Neha Patel, MD, of the Department of Medicine for asking a similar question!