The Beryl Institute establishes grant program to improve patient experience in healthcare

As part of its commitment to support research and learning around customer service and the patient experience in healthcare, The Beryl Institute, based in Bedford, Texas, has established The Beryl Institute Patient Experience Grant Program.

The grant program is intended to encourage and support research into the:

• value of focusing on the patient experience before, during and after care (e.g., ROI, satisfaction or quality outcomes)
• impact of customer service efforts on the healthcare experience
• influence of culture on the patient experience, service and, outcomes
• integrated review of the critical interaction of these factors in supporting positive healthcare experiences

The goal of the program is to broaden the dialogue on the value of focusing on the patient experience.  It will also serve to increase the volume of data-driven research supporting this critical topic.

"Central to our mission is the generation of new ideas and a commitment to expanding the discussion on improving the patient experience," said Jason Wolf, Executive Director of The Beryl Institute.  "We anticipate the grants will stimulate this activity across and between both academic and health care practitioner settings."

Healthcare personnel who are engaged in managing or improving patient experience, or doctoral students, and/or university faculty members may apply for this grant.  Research should be relevant to the topics outlined by the grant program and be either in the proposal stage, in process or near completion. Recently completed studies will be considered based on relevance to the topic.

All recipients of the grant will be asked to complete the research within a year of the grant being awarded and to develop a White Paper on the subject, which will be published through The Beryl Institute.  Grantees will also be asked to present their findings at The Beryl Institute 2011 Conference.  

The Institute will select four winners each year, awarding each $1,000.  

The submission deadline for applicants is August 31, 2010.  Awards will be announced in mid-September 2010.