Relationship-Based Care: A novel approach for patients and providers

When I think of the word “relationship,” I imagine gazing into the loving eyes of my husband, playing hide and seek with my children, or texting my best friend for no good reason other than to just say hello.

There is a special comfort zone we expect from people who are close to us; a feeling of love and acceptance that we can’t find elsewhere.

But in a much broader sense, our important relationships extend far beyond our inner circle to include every single person who is involved with our health care team. Our team includes the hospital executives who create new safety initiatives, develop budgets, and oversee a host of other patient care and fiscal functions. The physical therapists who evaluate our patients and make recommendations on how to safely transition them out of the hospital are on our team. The housekeepers who scrub the toilets and wash the linens to prevent nosocomial infections are on our team. They, along with many others, play a pivotal role in our patients’ care, although many important players make their impact behind the scenes.

Yet, of course, our most important professional relationships are not with the CEO, the pharmacist, or even the nursing staff. Our most important relationships are with our patients and their families. I recently attended an all-day conference on a little-known gem called Relationship-Based Care (RBC), a culture transformation and operational model that is gaining steam globally. The RBC model focuses not only on well-known metrics, such as patient safety, quality care, and patient satisfaction; it also emphasizes staff satisfaction by improving each and every relationship. Specifically, it creates therapeutic relationships between caregivers and the patients and families they serve, strengthens relationships between members of the health care team, and last, but certainly not least, it nurtures each caregiver’s relationship with himself or herself. What a novel, and much needed concept!

Numerous hospitals that have implemented this training model have achieved impressive outcomes, including significant improvement in HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) scores, and staff satisfaction survey scores so high that one hospital gained national recognition as one of the best places to work in America.

I look forward to future training on RBC and am glad to see that addressing the needs of caregivers, not just care receivers, is starting to take center stage, as it rightfully should. After all, how can we give our all to our patients when we are not whole?

Dr. Hester is a hospitalist at Baltimore-Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, Md. She is the creator of the Patient Whiz, a patient-engagement app for iOS. Reach her at healthsavvy@aol.com.

When I think of the word “relationship,” I imagine gazing into the loving eyes of my husband, playing hide and seek with my children, or texting my best friend for no good reason other than to just say hello.

There is a special comfort zone we expect from people who are close to us; a feeling of love and acceptance that we can’t find elsewhere.

But in a much broader sense, our important relationships extend far beyond our inner circle to include every single person who is involved with our health care team. Our team includes the hospital executives who create new safety initiatives, develop budgets, and oversee a host of other patient care and fiscal functions. The physical therapists who evaluate our patients and make recommendations on how to safely transition them out of the hospital are on our team. The housekeepers who scrub the toilets and wash the linens to prevent nosocomial infections are on our team. They, along with many others, play a pivotal role in our patients’ care, although many important players make their impact behind the scenes.

Yet, of course, our most important professional relationships are not with the CEO, the pharmacist, or even the nursing staff. Our most important relationships are with our patients and their families. I recently attended an all-day conference on a little-known gem called Relationship-Based Care (RBC), a culture transformation and operational model that is gaining steam globally. The RBC model focuses not only on well-known metrics, such as patient safety, quality care, and patient satisfaction; it also emphasizes staff satisfaction by improving each and every relationship. Specifically, it creates therapeutic relationships between caregivers and the patients and families they serve, strengthens relationships between members of the health care team, and last, but certainly not least, it nurtures each caregiver’s relationship with himself or herself. What a novel, and much needed concept!

Numerous hospitals that have implemented this training model have achieved impressive outcomes, including significant improvement in HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) scores, and staff satisfaction survey scores so high that one hospital gained national recognition as one of the best places to work in America.

I look forward to future training on RBC and am glad to see that addressing the needs of caregivers, not just care receivers, is starting to take center stage, as it rightfully should. After all, how can we give our all to our patients when we are not whole?

Dr. Hester is a hospitalist at Baltimore-Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, Md. She is the creator of the Patient Whiz, a patient-engagement app for iOS. Reach her at healthsavvy@aol.com.

When I think of the word “relationship,” I imagine gazing into the loving eyes of my husband, playing hide and seek with my children, or texting my best friend for no good reason other than to just say hello.

There is a special comfort zone we expect from people who are close to us; a feeling of love and acceptance that we can’t find elsewhere.

But in a much broader sense, our important relationships extend far beyond our inner circle to include every single person who is involved with our health care team. Our team includes the hospital executives who create new safety initiatives, develop budgets, and oversee a host of other patient care and fiscal functions. The physical therapists who evaluate our patients and make recommendations on how to safely transition them out of the hospital are on our team. The housekeepers who scrub the toilets and wash the linens to prevent nosocomial infections are on our team. They, along with many others, play a pivotal role in our patients’ care, although many important players make their impact behind the scenes.

Yet, of course, our most important professional relationships are not with the CEO, the pharmacist, or even the nursing staff. Our most important relationships are with our patients and their families. I recently attended an all-day conference on a little-known gem called Relationship-Based Care (RBC), a culture transformation and operational model that is gaining steam globally. The RBC model focuses not only on well-known metrics, such as patient safety, quality care, and patient satisfaction; it also emphasizes staff satisfaction by improving each and every relationship. Specifically, it creates therapeutic relationships between caregivers and the patients and families they serve, strengthens relationships between members of the health care team, and last, but certainly not least, it nurtures each caregiver’s relationship with himself or herself. What a novel, and much needed concept!

Numerous hospitals that have implemented this training model have achieved impressive outcomes, including significant improvement in HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) scores, and staff satisfaction survey scores so high that one hospital gained national recognition as one of the best places to work in America.

I look forward to future training on RBC and am glad to see that addressing the needs of caregivers, not just care receivers, is starting to take center stage, as it rightfully should. After all, how can we give our all to our patients when we are not whole?

Dr. Hester is a hospitalist at Baltimore-Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, Md. She is the creator of the Patient Whiz, a patient-engagement app for iOS. Reach her at healthsavvy@aol.com.