Beebe Healthcare’s Compassion Recognition Program gains national recognition

Beebe Healthcare announced that its Patient Experience team will be recognized during a national conference for the Compassion Recognition Program designed and implemented in Lewes.

Beebe's Patient Experience team had heard of the importance of empathy training at previous regional and national patient experience conferences, but there was no clear-cut program to follow, so they decided to create their own. The planning for the Compassion Recognition Program took more than a year. Classes were then held over the course of 2015, with 2,120 Beebe team members attending 120 sessions.

"Compassion is part of what we all do, so we thought it was important to recognize the compassion our team members show on a daily basis. We added conversation starters and tips to promote sharing in the group sessions," said Jeanne Briley-Wallo, director of Patient Experience at Beebe Healthcare. "We held small-group sessions, which included about 20 to 25 people in each session. We were highly successful in that 96 percent of all Beebe team members attended a session."

It was this success that Press Ganey, the national organization for patient experience, recognized and wanted to share during its conference held each November. Beebe's Patient Experience Team submitted an application, which was accepted.

"Our application was much different from what Press Ganey often receives for national conference in that we are actually going to provide a mini-compassion recognition session for participants," said Catherine Walls, Patient Experience program coordinator. "We have been to past conferences and everyone talks about creating empathy training, but we are actually going to show Press Ganey conference attendees how we did it and give them a taste of one of the sessions."

"Here at Beebe, compassion is a core value, and we are taking our compassion on the road," said Jody Barbarulo, patient advocate. "It is so appropriate that this is our 100th year of caring at Beebe, and here we are taking that caring mentality and sharing it with patient care teams from across the nation."

In addition to presenting at the national Press Ganey conference, the Beebe team will also be presenting at a regional National Association of Healthcare Access Management conference in October in Rhode Island.

For more than 30 years, Press Ganey's mission has been to support healthcare providers in understanding and improving the entire patient experience. The Press Ganey National Client Conference is a leading patient experience event designed for healthcare professionals dedicated to advancing the safety, quality and experience of care. The conference will be held Wednesday-Friday, Nov. 2-4 at the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort.