Grateful patient program hospital

A life-saving surgery. A clean room. A meal you ordered. Every detail matters to us. Because every detail matters to you.

We invite you to thank and honor those who helped bring you comfort, ease your fears and help your child. What makes a grateful patient program successful and who is involved in the process? How do you track program success?

What is a Daily Patient Screening? How do you start a grateful patient program? What are the grateful patient program best practices? Why do hospitals need grateful patient programs?

We all need money to do things, and, likewise, hospitals require funds to pay for: Equipment Employees Services Facility renovations In addition, there are other functions that need financing to improve both patient care and the overall hospital experience. Grateful patient programs also benefit patients. These programs give patients the chance to both express gratefulness and extend support to the individual staff members and departments that played meaningful roles in their care.

Patients also get to support the future of their own healthcare as well as the medical care of countless others in their communities. And finally, hospitals are also brands, and all brands want to be known for doing good things. A grateful patient program is evidence of all of your excellent work, since grateful patients are generously giving back in honor of the positive experiences they had in your care. A hospital with a good reputation is apt to receive more patients, and, when the good word spreads, any and all patients might consider giving some amount to support the future of both the hospital and their own medical care.

On top of cultivating a stellar grateful patient program, remember that it never hurts to look into other healthcare fundraising opportunities too for providing aid to specific expenses like hospital bills, medical research, and more! A lack of public awareness in regards to financial need is the biggest hurdle for nonprofit hospitals. High healthcare costs create incorrect beliefs that hospitals rake in huge profits, but philanthropy is essential for nonprofit facilities to be able to continue to provide the best doctors, equipment, and overall care.

Grateful patient programs require a serious investment of time and resources from your healthcare organization, so, for long-term fundraising success, think about instituting the following program components: Dedicated staff Budget Privacy guidelines Data processes Recruitment strategies Screening processes Prospect and program management Day-to-day success relies on timing, research, and a staff that is dedicated to providing the best patient experience. Timing is especially important, as patients are much more likely to donate closer to their discharge.

Hospitals, therefore, have to be proactive about identifying prospects early. You may not know if your patients prefer ketchup to mustard, but you will unearth relevant information such as past philanthropy, corporate and nonprofit involvement, and real estate ownership.

A dedicated staff makes or breaks your efforts, as a grateful patient program is only as successful as the people who make the gears turn. Your grateful patient team of hospital staff will include: Nurses Doctors Administrators All of them need to be active and vigilant in doing their part to support the program. Your exemplary care can make a big difference. A grateful patient program can be a great way to raise money, but it is crucial to have robust controls in place to ensure optimal operating processes, such as: Appropriate outreach strategies.

Data tracking. Measuring both the actions that your program takes and donor responses to those actions allows you to improve , so you will want to track important information, including: Number of new prospects identified versus new donors acquired.

Number of patient visits to the hospital versus total money donated. Amount of repeat donations. Amount of donors increasing their annual gifts. Length of time for a donation to be received after discharge. Response rates to certain types of solicitation. Stewardship, such as thanking donors and other donor follow-ups. That list is a snapshot of what can be tracked and improved. Perhaps a certain type of solicitation, such as direct mail, works best, or you find that most patients desire a week between their discharge and the receipt of a donation inquiry.

Divide the net profit by the expenses and multiply by Calculate the ROI for of all of your fundraising programs to determine if your grateful patient program is viable and comparable to other fundraising efforts.

Gratitude Club members will be included in an annual reception featuring members from the UMMC leadership team, as well as regular updates about current and future plans for the medical center. Click here to make your gift, and:. Office of Development Ways to Give. Share your story of gratitude Please consider writing a quick note or sending thanks to the people who helped you. You may honor a caregiver in any role. For example, you could be incredibly wealthy, but not grateful, so you give very little.

By contrast, you could be incredibly grateful, but not wealthy, so you give as much as you possibly can. There are 4 key steps to set up successful grateful patient programs:. Clinicians are able to identify which of their patients are grateful. So, they have a keen understanding of who may have a greater propensity and capacity to give.

While fundraising may be a means, it is not the goal. Sharing the benefits clearly will enable healthcare providers to understand and trust your motivations and be more open to working with your team. Once you engage and have the support of your C-Suite, you can begin identifying which doctors and nurses should be involved in your grateful patient program.

This gives you an opportunity to talk to them about how important their contributions are to your grateful patient program, and how important they are to the future. Openly involve them in the process during these meetings. How do you want to be involved in a way that in this philanthropic process lives as comfortable with you? This will help you create a foundation of trust between you and your clinicians.

By training your doctors and nurses in philanthropic giving, you can change the culture of your healthcare institution. Since clinicians work within the medical field, engaging in philanthropy will be uncharted territory for them. Training may change the way clinicians think about your intent. However, the exposure may not change their behaviors. Clinicians may not suddenly feel inclined to share information about their patients.