Presentations

Click here to contact Susan about speaking for your organization »

Managing Patient Expectations

Patient retention, referrals and the personal rewards of working in health care are closely linked to the quality of relationships developed with patients and their families. Managing expectations is a process of helping people know how to be right and when to be satisfied, through word-of-mouth commentary, advertising, first impressions and responsive communication. How can you manage unrealistic expectations in a way that satisfies your patient and preserves your relationship? Attend this program to expand your knowledge about how to increase patient trust, confidence and follow-through.

Yes! You Can Soothe, Smooth and Improve Difficult People

Some people are harder to care for than others. This program will provide you with strategies and dialogue for interactions with the “personality-challenged” folks in your life. After attending this program, you will be able to: identify reasons why people are difficult; predict when you are prone to overreact to the difficult person; use empathy and tact even when under pressure; avoid mirroring the angry person; respond calmly to difficult people; and reduce the stress of difficult interactions.

The Credibility/Likeability Makeover

You may know people who are very talented at the technical aspects of their work. Yet, if singularly focused on the technical task aspects, they may be off the charts in terms of expertise, but lacking in the social skills that inspire trust and loyalty. You may also know people who are amusing to know, but who have difficulty inspiring others to have confidence in their competence. They’re good at what they do, but others don’t see it somehow.

There are specific behaviors you can use to demonstrate your expertise and your likeability. Practitioners who master the credibility/likeabilty mix enjoy the confidence of their patients and colleagues. Discussion will include:

Behaviors that inspire trust and confidence
How to coach effectively
Case scenarios

Great Leaders Help Others Act on Their Best Intentions

You want the service provided by your team to reflect your mission, vision and values, as well as your commitment to excellence. In order to make responsiveness to patients, families and co-workers expected and routine, you have to rely on choices your staff members make in each moment of communication. And because you can’t be everywhere at once, you need tools that provide accountability and support to help others act on their best intentions. Discussion will include:

Three factors that influence discretionary effort and how you can use these factors to inspire your colleagues
Best practices of leaders who inspire and energize people about service
Keys to compassionate, reassuring and personal care
Overcoming the obstacles to consistent rounding with staff
A listening tool to help you listen more effectively while helping staff members take ownership of solutions.
Accountability tools you can implement tomorrow

Improving Healthcare Leadership, Communication and Outcomes Through Accountability Tools – One Day Retreat

Exceptional people don’t hesitate to do the right thing. They don’t hesitate to reach out to others with openness, kindness and concern. Exceptional leaders help colleagues to act on their best intentions. In this dynamic session, leaders will receive tools to reinforce responsiveness to patients, physicians and co-workers. When you can’t be everywhere at once, you can provide prompts for enhanced performance.

In this one day retreat, leaders become familiar with hiring, coaching, feedback and other tools that can be implemented quickly and easily. Every leader constructs a department or division action plan for service excellence activities to take place during the following twelve months. A playbook is constructed for the organization to use in tracking progress.

Instant Rapport: How To Inspire Trust and Confidence When You Have Too Little Time and Too Many Patients

Have you ever met someone and instantly liked the person, without even being sure why? Would your life be easier if people felt that way about you? What are three strategies you can use to create quick rapport when time is limited? Learn how to create the kind of rapport that inspires patients and other important people in your life to trust you.

“I’m sorry to hear that…” Service Recovery Skills to Restore Patient Satisfaction

Complaining about something is the person’s way to saying, “I need your help.” How you and your colleagues handle that expression of unhappiness will have a lot to do with whether the patient chooses to remain loyal or will seek care elsewhere. Unresolved complaints can result in negative word of mouth advertising, adverse publicity and malpractice suits. Service recovery skills help you respond to complaints with greater ease and in a way that helps you preserve and even improve the relationship. This presentation provides: best practices in service recovery; effective responses to specific patient complaints; what to do and say when the patient is wrong; techniques to prevent escalation of difficult situations; how to develop responses you can choose from when patients complain about billing, service quality, their environment, your colleagues and communication.

World Class Service Excellence: 60 Ideas in 60 Minutes

What do successful organizations do to maintain the momentum of their service quality initiatives? How can you sustain the gains you’ve made and take your program to the next level? Strategies of highly regarded service leaders will be discussed – sixty in sixty minutes!

The World is Full of Cactus, but We Don’t Have to Sit on It

Life doesn’t always go the way we want it to. Whether it is an encounter with a difficult person, a difficult day, or an unwanted change, the cactus in our lives can take a toll. You’ll learn how to dust yourself off and maintain a positive outlook – whatever life brings your way.

HCAHPS & Willingness to Recommend: What Senior Leadership Can Do Next

The willingness to recommend (WTR) question on patient satisfaction surveys is a macro-level measure that can feel impossible to influence. Yet to move the dial on your HCAHPS rankings, you need to be concerned about this measure that trumps everything else in terms of meeting and exceeding patient expectations. This presentation will focus on specific actions senior leaders can implement to enhance patients’ likelihood to recommend. Content will include:

Best practices of hospitals with WTR of 90% or more
Social media, online reviews
Rapid service improvements to create consistent, reliable experiences
What you need to stop saying to patients and families
The best advocates you’re not watching
Effective and ineffective testimonials
Who talks, who walks? Tracking exit, voice and loyalty
10 questions to map out your strategy