Ilkay Baylam, PMP, MBA, is the Assistant Director at Planetree International. Through his role here, Baylam provides the company with strategic guidance for international business development for key stakeholders, whilst implementing international standards for person-centred care at the organisational level. Baylam will be speaking at this year’s 2nd Annual International Patient Experience Symposium in Abu Dhabi, 18-19 Nov 2019.

 

What are your key areas of interest and research? 

My key area of interest and research is engagement strategies for patients, their loved ones and staff members. I believe that the core element of Person-Centred Care (PCC) is based upon engagement 

 

What are the major challenges in your field? 

Executive support and sustainability. Person-Centred Care is not among the priorities of C-Suite leaders or board members. Perspective on PCC is “nice to have” and we need a culture transformation towards “must have” for PCC. Another challenge is that, PCC is treated at an individual level rather than a corporate level. You might see one hospital CEO who believes in it and starts the initiative and when he leaves, the next CEO might not sustain the program as PCC is not in his radar. That is why PCC needs to be embraced at the board level which attributes a sustainability liability to the C-Suite members.

 

What is the key to success when communicating with the public?

Transparency, listening and educating. If we need an honest conversation with the public, we need to start the dialogue by being transparent to the public and listening the voice of public. Making our performance indicators public is one way to show our transparency to the public. Having focus groups from different segments of public can be a baseline for listening the public voice. In order to have meaningful conversation with the public, we have the responsibility to educate them.  

 

Do you feel the core subjects of International Patient Experience Symposium (IPX) reflects your aspirations for Healthcare development? If so, what most interests you?

Oh yes, absolutely. There are many subjects that excite me such as “Restoring Humanity in Healthcare’s Digital Age” and “Role of Leaders in Cultivating Healing Working Environment.” However, as engagement strategies is my area of interest, I look forward to seeing the presentation “Next Generation Patient Engagement to Achieve Prevention before Intervention.” 

 

What do you hope delegates will take away from the IPX Symposium?

When I look at the presentations and topics, there are a variety of valuable insights that participants can bring home from macro-level to micro-level. There are topics at the system level to better understand the reimbursement model of patient experience and topics related with staff experience which is the lesser known element of Person-Centred Care. I believe participants will learn hospital-based practices such as executive rounding to system level policies. 

 

What are the three changes hospital managers should make in order to provide excellent consumer experiences?

The first and most important one is the staff experience. You cannot grow flowers in poisoned soil. Whatever you give to your staff members, they will give tenfold back to their patients. Second one is engaging your patients and their loved ones to everything. I did not want to use the term ‘care’ here on purpose as our encounters with patients and their families are far more than the care itself. That is why we need to involve patients and their families to everything that we do about them. I believe “Nothing about me, without me” summarises this case. The third one, meaningful partnerships with patients and their loved ones. Patient and Family Partnership Councils are one way to work with patients and their families to humanise healthcare together.

 

If you had not chosen this career path, what do you think you would have become?

I would really love to work for a magazine about nature where I could travel around the world and share the magnificent photos of our beautiful earth with the subscribers.  

 

Do you have a favourite saying/quote?

“Live simply, so others can simply live…”

 

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PCC, patient experience, Person-Centred Care, 2nd International Patient Experience Symposium, IPX Symposium, 2nd Annual International Patient Experience Symposium, #IPXSymposium Speaker Spotlight: Ilkay Baylam, Ilkay Baylam, IPX Ilkay Baylam, PMP, MBA, is the Assistant Director at Planetree International and will be speaking at this year’s 2nd Annual International Patient Experience Symposium in Abu Dhabi, 18-19 Nov 2019.