Dr. David Feinberg is equally comfortable talking about Starbucks’ customer service as he is about medicare reimbursements and patient outcomes. And that’s why Feinberg is an astonishingly effective healthcare leader. Feinberg is constantly looking outside of his industry for creative ideas on how to improve a category that makes up more than 18% of the U.S. economy.
Feinberg is the president and CEO for Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health, a system of 12 hospitals and 30,000 employees. Prior to joining Geisinger, Feinberg transformed the UCLA Medical System into one of the most admired hospitals in the country. Although UCLA was known for creating innovative medical therapies, it ranked near the bottom of patient satisfaction. Two out of three patients would not recommend it to a friend or family. Patient satisfaction soared under Feinberg’s leadership. UCLA now ranks in the 99th percentile for patient satisfaction and is consistently named one of the top hospitals in America.
In my conversations with Feinberg, I learned that he is transforming healthcare in five distinct ways. Each of these innovations can (and should) be emulated by other healthcare professionals and business leaders in any industry who want to improve employee engagement and the customer experience.
1. Look outside of your industry for creative ideas.
Feinberg recently unveiled one of his most radical innovations, a pilot program called ProvenExperience, offering refunds to patients whose expectations were not met. The idea comes from retail brands admired for their service. “The way I see it, if you go into Starbucks and you’re not happy with your order, they don’t sip your latte and argue that they made it correctly. They just take care of you on the spot,” Feinberg said.
It works like this. Imagine that you paid a $1,000 co-pay for a surgery and were not pleased with how the staff treated you. You can log on to an app, select from a sliding scale, decide how much of your co-pay you’d like back, and the request will be processed within 3 to 5 business days. So far, says Feinberg, the system has not been abused. Patients simply want to know that their experience is important enough for the hospital to refund their money should they be disappointed.
Feinberg “shamelessly copies” from the best service brands, inside and outside of the healthcare field. He’s emulated programs from leading hospitals and also from luxury retailers. At UCLA, he created a hiring program based on a Ritz-Carlton program called Talent Plus, which helps to recruit and identify “service-minded” employees.
2. Find your purpose.
Employees in nearly every organization want to feel as though they are part of something remarkable. For Feinberg, helping people find their purpose began at UCLA with an empowering mission statement: “Healing human kind one patient at a time by alleviating suffering, promoting health, and delivering acts of kindness.” Feinberg proudly points out that, at the time, UCLA was the only medical center in America that put “kindness” in its mission statement. The Gallup organization conducted a study of the best and worst hospital experiences. It concluded that one of the top two success factors was “a clear mission, vision and values.” The other success factor? “Strong and visible leadership.” Mission statements don’t mean much if the leader doesn’t walk the talk.
3. Walk the shop floor.
Feinberg walks the talk, and walks and walks. At UCLA, Feinberg would spend two to three hours a day visiting with patients, even leaving a card behind with his cellphone number. He knew his approach was working when he walked into a patient’s room and found several cards other hospital leaders had left behind…with their personal phone numbers.
Feinberg hasn’t stopped walking at Geisinger. The day before one of our phone conversations Feinberg had spent thirty minutes in the waiting room of a Geisinger clinic (1.5 hours from his office) just to observe how patients were being checked in. He was so impressed with what he saw, he praised the staff and wrote a personal note to the head doctor at the clinic. On any given day you can find him in the kitchen talking to the cooking staff or nutritionists in the cafés or nurses in the hallway. And you can always find him asking patients about their experience and helping the staff perform their duties in a patient’s room. “You’ve got to walk the shop floor,” says Feinberg.
4. Coach employees to be exceptional communicators.
When Feinberg walks the shop floor, he’s evaluating how well the staff implements a communication program he helped to develop at UCLA. The program is titled: C.I. CARE. I’ve studied the program for years and I believe it’s one of the most effective communication techniques devised to train employees to offer exceptional service to every patient (or customer) every time. The framework guides every interaction with colleagues, patients, visitors and others. Here’s what the acronym stands for:
Connect (make a great first impression, greet patient by name when possible, etc).
Introduce (introduce yourself, your name and your role).
Communicate (explain what you’re going to do).
Ask permission and anticipate (for example, May I come in? May I examine you now? Also anticipate needs and concerns).
Respond (respond to a patient’s needs or requests promptly and positively).
End with excellence (close the loop, communicate next steps, manage up by explaining who the patient will be meeting next).
The framework works so well that when Feinberg started at Geisinger, he asked the staff if they had a communication training program. A young doctor suggested they study C.I. CARE, which he had learned at Stanford. The doctor didn’t know he was speaking to the person who developed it.
5. See yourself as the Chief Storytelling Officer.
“Storytelling is the key leadership tool,” says Feinberg. “I think of myself as the chief storytelling officer.” Instead of beginning a leadership or board meeting with tables, charts and revenue graphs, Feinberg invites patients to speak or he reads from a patient letter. “In the healthcare business, our stories are better than what you’re seeing in Hollywood. These are real-life people who are struggling and when we get it right, it feels really good,” says Feinberg. “Storytelling is my most important tool as a leader. ”
In his first year at Geisinger patient satisfaction scores have increased across all departments. The health system has seen its best physician retention rates on record. Employee engagement is higher than the year before. But it’s not enough. Feinberg is never satisfied and it drives his excellence. “When I tell you those results are better, I’m comparing us to other healthcare organizations.” Feinberg doesn’t want to be the best of a mediocre group; he wants to create the best experience in any industry. “I want to be the example of the right way to treat people— with dignity, respect, kindness and caring.”