"Nothing Is More Powerful than Words:" How Patient Experience Narratives Enable Improvement.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Patient Experience Research
• Qualitative Health Research

Background:

• Patient experience narratives are increasingly vital for healthcare measurement and improvement.
• Narratives offer credible evidence for clinicians and staff, but their practical application can be challenging.
• Middle managers in outpatient clinics play a key role in utilizing these narratives.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how middle managers value and use written patient experience narratives in their daily work.
• To understand the role of narratives in leadership, supervision, and quality improvement within outpatient clinics.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with 20 middle managers across 8 outpatient clinics.
• Thematic analysis of transcribed interviews to identify themes related to narrative valuation and utilization.
• Utilized MAX-QDA software for data management and coding.

Main Results:

• Managers value narratives for augmenting patient experience scores, deepening patient understanding, identifying operational issues, and facilitating strategic work.
• Narratives are used for supervision, group learning, motivating staff, recognizing strengths, and inspiring transformational thinking.
• Narratives informed specific quality improvement projects by highlighting issues and suggesting solutions.

Conclusions:

• Narratives serve as a valuable tool for middle managers in leadership and supervision, guiding improvement work in outpatient settings.
• The use of narrative data can enhance patient experience scores and provide direction and meaning to workplace endeavors.
• Words, in the form of patient narratives, are a powerful tool for gaining insights and driving meaningful change.