By Healthcare Facilities Today

New emphasis on patient experience has caused many hospitals to add a seat in the C-suite: a chief experience officer, according to an article on the Becker's Hospital Review website.  A CXO is essentially in charge of making every patient's experience a positive one in the hospital or health system and innovating new ways to improve patient experience and boost satisfaction scores.

Patient experience has always been important for hospitals and health systems because of its impact on patient outcomes.  Now patient experience scores have a financial impact due to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The PPACA ties a portion of hospitals' reimbursement to their patient experience scores. Additionally, Medicare uses certain patient experience scores to measure the progress of its accountable care organizations.

Adding a CXO title to the C-suite gives hospitals a two-fold advantage to improving patient experience scores: a specialized focus on improving the metric and the ability to attract the top talent to the position, according to the article.

"The larger organizations that are really more progressive are using the title. Many others are using methods to improve patient experience, but the title helps attract the best of the best," Brian Johnston, a partner in Stanton Chase International's Nashville, Tenn., office and leader of its North American Healthcare Practice Group. 

Read the article.