ur purpose, as an organization, is to enable a person to live a better life with better health. In 2008, University of Utah Health had an audacious goal: in addition to receiving the best clinical care, every patient would have an exceptional experience. It is hard enough to be sick or injured; we wanted every patient to encounter both compassion and expertise.

We’ve been focused on patient experience for a decade and we’ve learned a lot, both about our organization and our patients. We’ve learned that patient experience doesn’t mean overtesting or overtreating, but that we bring empathy and more communication to patient interactions. We’ve learned that patient experience is not just being friendly or kind, but about ensuring that people feel safe. We’ve learned that patients expect transparency. We’ve learned that the voice of patients and their families is critical: both to keep us focused on improvement and to remind us how meaningful it is to work in health care.

The Pace of Change

While we’ve focused on patient experience, University of Utah Health has grown in the last decade. Both services and clinics have expanded along the Wasatch front and throughout the intermountain west. In the last 5 years alone, our clinical faculty has swelled by over 40%Source: UUMG FY18 Year-End Performance Report, presented at 8/27/18 UUMG Board Meeting.. Much of that growth comes from doubling the number of advanced practice clinicians. As we’ve opened new locations and new hospital units to better meet patient needs, our workforce has increased over 30%Source: U of U Health Hospitals and Clinics HR annual employee count FY13-FY18..

Our patients have changed in the last decade as well. Like the rest of the country, the way we seek information and purchase goods and even seek care has changed dramatically since 2008. Consider in 2008, Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPhone had just launched and The Joint Commission accredited CVS MinuteClinics—bringing neighborhood walk-in convenience to communities across the nation. The nation’s biggest companies are taking matters into their own hands. Amazon, JP Morgan Chase, and Berkshire Hathaway are rethinking how health care should look and feel.

Patients themselves are driving choice in health care, sometimes outside the walls of their insurance networks. In 2019, patients research both their symptoms, conditions, and clinicians online. Patients no longer blindly follow referrals, and they expect to learn about the clinician online.

The Next 10 Years

In our new paradigm—new locations, new faculty, new staff, changing expectations from patients—we must continue to advance our patient-centered mission. The “exceptional patient experience” is a promise we make to ourselves about the kind of clinicians and the kind of organization we want to be.

The phrase “exceptional patient experience” is an ideal worth striving for. It should be easier to be a patient. We will continue to reduce the work and burden of patients—from the challenges of scheduling appointments, to understanding medication regimens, to navigating a complex billing system.

While there are many processes that have made medicine more accessible, efficient, and team-based, these processes have also made the practice of medicine more complex. The pace of medical practice has led many of our clinicians to feel that care is a “blur,” overly busy days marked by brief interactions with patients and with colleagues.

We know that interdisciplinary teams with shared purpose make all the difference. In the coming months, our senior leaders will be helping to highlight the work of resilient teams who implement best practices with consistency, solve problems and create breakthroughs together.

We’ll also share how to stay grounded in our patients’ feedback. We’ve been incredibly successful and recognized as national leaders in patient experience—9 years as among the best in the nation in Vizient, nearly half of clinicians in the national top 10%ile of patient experience. Just as we have measured our success and growth over the last decade, we’ll continue to show you what you’re doing to propel us into our next decade of exceptional care.