Teamwork Makes the Dream Work for Hospitality Health ER

In 2014 registered nurse Jeanne Shipp was part of a small group of experienced emergency room staff members in the Houston, Texas area who wanted to start their own independently run freestanding emergency room. They established Patients Emergency Room in Baytown, and soon expanded with additional freestanding Hospitality Health ERs in Longview, Tyler, and Galveston. Jeanne Shipp and her team continue to focus on high-quality patient care and the teamwork that makes that possible.

Nurses and healthcare workers generally can’t be successful on their own. In fact, medicine has been a team sport from the beginning. Experts note that teamwork and communication are critically important when it comes to patient care. Today’s healthcare workers are a multidisciplinary force of primary care doctors, specialists, technicians, nurses, and assistants, all working toward the same goal. The level of teamwork a group of medical professionals exhibits has a direct effect on patient safety and healthcare outcomes and on patients’ satisfaction with their care.

Monitoring patient progress successfully depends on clear, regular, systematized communication so that everyone on the team is up to date on treatment plans. Frequent communication means that teams have easier access to one another’s assessment of a patient, and that they can identify and address potential problems more quickly.

It’s also now widely acknowledged that a conscious effort to build a system of teamwork and communication results in higher levels of staff retention, lower rates of burnout, and greater overall job satisfaction for healthcare workers.

The Heart of ER Care Is Having a Heart

A registered nurse with extensive experience, Jeanne Shipp is the co-founder of Patients Emergency Room as well as three family-owned Hospitality Health ER facilities across Texas. Jeanne Shipp co-founded these freestanding emergency care sites with a focus on meeting the needs of the whole patient within a warm and welcoming atmosphere designed to help them get better sooner and quickly return to their normal routines.

Experts have noted that this kind of commitment to patient engagement is more likely to result in positive health outcomes. Emergency room patients are experiencing what may be the most vulnerable times in their lives, and a wide range of studies show that both medical professionals and their patients are affected positively when they establish personal connections. Patient compliance with treatment regimens improves, and stress levels decrease. Meanwhile, medical staff members also feel a deeper connection to the real meaning of their work, and they experience fewer symptoms of burnout.

Additionally, when patients are satisfied with the quality of their treatment and feel valued and understood, they tend to return to the same medical professionals over and over again. Therefore, taking time to really listen to patients, showing empathy, involving the patient in his or her own care, and demonstrating respect for patients’ individual needs are at the core of any successful treatment plan.