By
JULIE MINDA
Kindness is a top priority for Americans when it comes to health care; and
people are willing to switch providers, pay more and travel further to receive
"kind" health care. That is according to a nationwide survey commissioned by San
Francisco-based Dignity Health as part of the "Hello humankindness" campaign
that the system launched this summer.
"All people want to be and need to be treated with dignity and respect," and
that is no different when they access health care services, said Dr. Gary
Greensweig, Dignity chief physician executive and a member of a dignity brand
strategy council running the "Hello humankindness" campaign.
"When patients come into our care, they are at their most vulnerable point,
and to me that is why human kindness is so important to them, and that's why the
survey results show it's so important," Greensweig said.
The survey, which was conducted online by Wakefield Research in October,
found that 87 percent of respondents feel kind treatment by a physician is more
important than other top priorities in choosing a provider. They ranked kindness
above average wait times for appointments, distance from home and the cost of
care. Ninety percent of those surveyed said they would want to switch providers
if they were treated unkindly, and 72 percent would be willing to pay more to be
treated by a kind physician. Eighty-eight percent would be willing to travel
further to receive care from a kind provider.
However, according to the survey of 1,400 U.S. adults, 64 percent have
experienced unkind behavior in a health care setting. This included staff
rudeness, poor listening skills and/or a failure of providers to connect with
patients on a personal level.
Greensweig said with the thousands and thousands of interactions that happen
daily in health care between patients and caregivers, there are myriad
"opportunities for sacred interactions, good interactions, great interactions as
well as interactions where we aren't as good."
And, also, with all the pressures on the health care system and on providers,
"we don't always act our best."
But "delivering human kindness is our mission and purpose — it's why we exist
and why we get up every day," said Greensweig. And so, Dignity is helping
caregivers to emphasize kindness, he said. The system is doing this by drawing
employees' attention to the importance of kindness. The system is planning a
series of staff seminars on how to improve health care delivery, including by
being more kind.
But, Dignity's goal is not just to help staff to be nicer, said Greensweig.
"This is a movement … and we're calling on all people to be kind."
The Dignity-commissioned survey found that 95 percent of respondents believe
that they themselves are kind, but 48 percent believe society is unkind. Half
think children today will grow up to be less kind than their parents.
"Part of our focus (in our campaign) is raising the concept of human kindness
in general to the national consciousness," Greensweig said.
To that end, Dignity's $11 million campaign includes national advertising, a
social media push, public relations outreach and internal communications efforts
at Dignity, all aimed at encouraging people to be nicer. A website,
hellohumankindness.org, provides ideas on how people can be kinder and
highlights examples of generous and heroic people.
"We want people to associate Dignity with human kindness," Greensweig
said.