David Gustafson, PhD, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Walk-throughs enable providers to better understand the experience of care from the patient’s and family’s points of view — by going through the experience themselves. This tool is most useful in answering question 1 in the
Model for Improvement:
What are we trying to accomplish?
Conducting a walk-through has a variety of benefits:
- It provides first-hand knowledge of what it is like to be a patient in your organization.
- It builds the will and provides incentive for your organization to improve the process of providing care and enhancing the patient experience.
- It generates data that address the total experience of the patient, including direct observations as well as feelings such as frustration, fear, security, confidence, and confusion.
- It generates ideas for process improvement and innovation.
