by Anthony Cirillo

After 47 comments and being the top article across all FierceMarkets publications for almost a week, clearly a nerve was touched with the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) blog post. What I find interesting is that the original article on the topic a few years back was viewed more as curiosity. Now we clearly have controversy. That is good. Perhaps we will then have movement.

I want to concentrate on two areas where the blog post clearly hit home.

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1. C-Suite, Look at Thyself

I would encourage you to go back and read the comments on the post. It was a damning indictment to the C-suite. I'll paraphrase a few of the sentiments, of which many came from seasoned healthcare employees.

• The C-suite is only interested in personal reward, ego and promotion.
• There is ice water in the veins of management.
• Don't create more impotent C-suite positions.
• (from a 30-year nurse) The persistence of greed over the last three years is disappointing.

Don't get me wrong. Many people supported the idea of the CXO, noting that the C-suite is the only real leverage point to change how care is delivered.

But perhaps the most telling comment was one that stated: "It really starts with the Board. There needs to be a rededication to the Mission to deliver IOM's vision of a 21st century health system--healthcare should be Safe, Effective, Patient-centered, Timely, Effective and Equitable."

I do believe there are good and bad CEOs; but ultimately who hires them? ... The board of directors. So, some of the dedication or rededication to the mission must come from the very top of the organization.

A caring CEO is not an oxymoron. There are good CEOs, bad CEOs, and I believe CEOs who have simply lost their way in the chaos, confusion and power struggles of healthcare.

When we work with healthcare organizations, we help the C-Suite uncover their spirit, identity, values and beliefs long before we address behaviors and environment. We call it Transformation Before Training.

And that is how healthcare delivery must be approached. You cannot bring in mystery shoppers, launch the latest customer service initiative, map experiences or find gaps until you first re-examine the hospital's mission and vision. It may sound like fluff, but it is a grueling soul-searching process in which every single employee touches and shapes the mission and vision. Because with that comes buy-in. And with that comes empowered change.

2. Great Care and the Bottom Line: Another Oxymoron?

One word: No. Here are some real life figures I presented to the Cleveland Clinic that show what a dedication to creating great patient experiences can do for the bottom line.

• 58 percent will always or often pay more for a better customer experience.
• Saving just 8 percent of customers from attrition can add 20 percent to your profits.
• Customer-centric companies are 60 percent more profitable, and two times as likely to exceed return on shareholder equity.
• A 2 percent increase in customer retention has the same effect on profits as cutting costs 10 percent.
• A 5 percent reduction in customer defection rate can increase profits between 25 and 125 percent.

The C-suite needs to believe in these numbers and therefore invest in patient experience. Perhaps value-based purchasing and the 30 percent dependency on HCAHPS scores to recoup the Medicare dollars being left at the altar of reform will be the carrot that moves organizations forward.

But by then thousands more patients will run through systems of care that don't care, and more and more healthcare workers will burn out and leave. Clearly there is no time like the present.

Anthony Cirillo, FACHE, ABC, is president of Fast Forward Consulting, which specializes in experience management and strategic marketing for healthcare facilities. He is also the expert guide in Assisted Living for About.com. Fast Forward can assist you in making the case for the chief experience officer and work with yours to systemically address patient experience and rededicate organizations to their ultimate mission.