As Yale New Haven Health continues to integrate key functions and services to help us offer greater value to our patients, one of the most important opportunities for us is to develop common behavior standards to guide all employees and members of our medical staffs. 

Currently each delivery network has its own standards, and, not surprisingly, they already have much in common. For example, Greenwich Hospital employees follow the "Seven Standards for Exceptional Service;" Bridgeport Hospital's guide is the "Employee Customer Service Standards;" and Yale New Haven's is called "Service Excellence Pledge Standards." While they generally express similar expectations of behavior, Bridgeport, Greenwich and Yale New Haven hospitals, as well as Northeast Medical Group, have more than 195 behavioral standards among them.

The YNHHS Patient Experience Council, led by Patient Experience Medical Director Michael Bennick, MD, has begun consolidating and standardizing these behaviors at all YNHHS entities, ensuring they align with the health system's values and respect our intent regarding diversity and inclusion.

"How we behave and represent our individual organizations, and our system, to our patients and communities is essential to what differentiates care in our system," said Marna Borgstrom, YNHHS president and CEO. "Each and every one of us, through our behaviors, reflects the values that Yale New Haven Health has embraced – compassion, integrity, respect, accountability and patient-centered care." 

The Patient Experience Council will use data collected from research done in the health system's primary service areas about how we express our values. The council will also solicit feedback from employees, physicians, patients and other key constituents to develop a single set of clear behaviors that describe how we demonstrate our values in the work we do every day – with patients, visitors and one another. 

"Another goal is to make sure that our behavioral standards factor in the most important elements of patient safety and quality, our HRO efforts and the necessary behaviors for a positive patient experience. We want to ensure that the behavioral standards we develop will breathe life into our values and be guided by our HRO principles to ensure a positive, safe and high-quality patient experience for all we come in contact with," said Dr. Bennick.