Transforming healthcare through creating and defining a consistent, exceptional Ascension Health Experience

Ascension Health believes that providing consistently exceptional healthcare experiences will be increasingly important to our patients and to our continuing success as the cost of healthcare continues to shift more directly to consumers and as the growing availability of data creates more scrutiny and potential confusion around provider performance.

Accordingly, through Healthcare That Works, we focus on helping our Health Ministries improve the experience of healthcare delivery through two related sets of activities that together try to address shorter-term imperatives and longer-term opportunities.

We pursue this work in partnership with willing Health Ministries, other Ascension Health entities, and external thought leaders.

Our research within and outside healthcare - including a study involving nearly 2,000 patients at six of our Health Ministries - suggests that a distinctive healthcare experience consists of attributes along three realms:

1. Quality/value - safe, effective evidence-based care;
2. Process integrity - coordinated, efficient processes; and
3. Emotional connectedness - emotional and spiritual support.

This high-level definition of the Ascension Health Experience supports efforts at our Health Ministries to achieve Healthcare That Is Safe and clinically excellent; endeavors to improve how we move patients through the often-complex world of healthcare; and initiatives within the near-term agenda of Healthcare That Works.

This definition also highlights our need to be more intentional about unleashing our associates' desire to connect at appropriate emotional and spiritual levels with those we serve and those who serve with us. By creating a consistent, exceptional Ascension Health Experience, we strive to provide to those we serve and those who serve with us a desire to seek lifetime relationships with Ascension Health.

Learn more about our commitment and ideas for change:

• Consistent, Exceptional Ascension Health Experience
• Shorter-term Imperatives

© 2007 Ascension Health