DFMCH Providers, Staff Honored For Patient Experience and Quality Excellence

UW Health recently honored seven UW Department of Family Medicine and Community Health (DFMCH) providers, five staff members and a clinic team for their commitment to patient- and family-centered care and clinical quality.

They were among the winners recognized at UW Health’s Ambulatory Patient Experience and Quality Excellence Celebration event, held June 7, 2016, at Monona Terrace.

Physician/Advanced Practice Provider Patient Experience Champions

Magnolia J. Larson, DO, who practices at the Verona Clinic, and Elizabeth Perry, MD, who practices at the Fitchburg Clinic, were among 31 physicians who received Patient Experience Physician Champion Awards.

Janice K. Cooney, PA-C, who practices at the Verona Clinic, and Beverlee J. Speece, PA-C, who practices at the Dermatology clinic and is also the UW-Madison PA Program’s director of clinical education, were among 13 advanced practice providers (APP) who received Patient Experience APP Champion Awards.

All the honorees had exemplary communication skills as recognized by their clinic patients. Specifically, their patient experience survey scores ranked among the top 15 percent of all UW Health providers evaluated in 2015 in three key areas:

• My provider showed concern and sensitivity to my needs
• I was given the chance by my provider to provide input to decisions about my health care
• My provider explained my illness or treatment in a way I could understand

Greta Kuphal, MD, and Ronni Hayon, MD (not pictured)

Patient Experience Fast Trackers

In addition, Ronni Hayon, MD, who practices at the Northeast Family Medical Center, and Greta Kuphal, MD, who practices at the Arboretum Family Medicine Clinic, were among nine physicians who received UW Health 2016 Patient Experience Fast Tracker Awards.

That award recognizes physicians and advanced practice providers who achieved the most significant gains in 2015 in the three key areas above.

Reception Staff Patient Experience Finalists

Five DFMCH frontline staff members were also among the 13 finalists for the Diane Moscrip Best Reception Award.

This award recognizes receptionists, schedulers and department assistants who demonstrate outstanding service behaviors of kindness, compassion, concern and respect toward patients and families.

Diane Moscrip Best Reception Award Finalists

Some of their tips for ensuring the best patient experience:

“My best advice is to be friendly, smile, make eye contact, say, ‘How can I help you?’ and then listen carefully to the answer. Make the person in front of you the sole focus of your attention—don’t be distracted by other tasks.”

—Linda Ellestad

“I regularly ask the patient if there is something else I can do for them…to make their experience better.

I also show sensitivity by doing extra steps such as getting them a wheelchair if I see they are struggling,  offer to walk them back to the exam room if they are confused with our self-rooming, or even help mothers carry car seats, diaper bags, etc., to the room to lighten their load.

My advice would be to put yourself in the shoes of the patient. How would you wanted to be treated and what standards do you have for your medical clinic? Then try to be that person/facility.”

—Leslie Alme

Quality Excellence Primary Care Award Winners

Claire Gervais, MD, who practices at the Odana Atrium Clinic, and the staff of the Cross Plains Family Medicine Clinic also received Quality Excellence Primary Care Awards.

Those awards recognize top performers in the FY15 clinical quality measures used for the UW Health Primary Care Physician Compensation Program.

Quality Excellence Primary Care Award Winners

Congratulations to all the winners!

Related articles:

• UW Health Lauds Providers and Clinics for Patient Experience Excellence
• 2016 Ambulatory Patient Experience and Quality Excellence Event

Published: June 2016