Press Ganey and Compass Healthcare Launch New e-Book: “Intelligence with Empathy: Building the future of compassionate care”

Innovation ignites deeper human connection, ushering in a new era of compassionate inpatient care that reduces avoidable suffering

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Press Ganey, an experience measurement provider to over 41,000 healthcare organizations, and Compass Healthcare, a leading provider of healthcare support services for hospitals and health systems, have released a new collaborative e-book, “Intelligence with Empathy: Building the future of compassionate care.” This publication offers a fresh perspective on transforming the acute care experience by demonstrating how technology, guided by compassion, can elevate routine support services into meaningful touchpoints that reduce suffering and enhance the overall patient and caregiver experience.

“At Press Ganey, we believe that technology’s greatest power is not in replacing the human touch, but in restoring it,” said Charles Hagood, Managing Partner, Press Ganey. “This e-book, co-created with Compass Healthcare, demonstrates how uniting intelligence and intention allows caregivers to focus on their ultimate purpose: connecting, comforting, and caring for others. It paints a clear vision for a future where healthcare is not only smarter, but profoundly kinder.”

As healthcare organizations increasingly prioritize elevating the patient experience, a one-size-fits-all approach no longer suffices. The e-book highlights how understanding, identifying, and actively measuring suffering to manage it – a critical foundation for compassionate care – enables hospitals to reimagine inpatient care. Moving beyond rigid routines, the guide emphasizes shaping experiences that are innovative, responsive, personalized, and grounded in compassion.

“Restoring a sense of dignity and comfort for patients during their stay is paramount,” said Dusty Deringer, PhD, Compass Healthcare’s Vice President of Experience. “Even something as seemingly simple as giving patients choice and autonomy in ordering their meals can have a profound impact, making their hospitalization feel more personal and less procedural. Our investment in our healthcare technology ecosystem and collaboration with Press Ganey underscores our shared commitment to creating deeply human experiences in the healthcare setting.”

The findings and case studies in the e-book illustrate how advances in data, connected solutions, and real-time visibility are illuminating a new path forward, transforming what were once considered mere support services into core components of patient well-being. Specifically, “Intelligence with empathy” delves into how these principles are applied across three vital areas:

1. Intelligent Dining: Implementing intelligent dining practices transforms the patient meal experience from reactive to predictive, uniting hospitality with clinical precision. Organizations can leverage advanced technologies like AI-powered voice- and language-recognition to enhance accuracy and efficiency, significantly impacting patient satisfaction and safety.

• A compelling case study highlights how one hospital leveraged an “AI sous chef” system, achieving 36% fewer missing items on trays and 16% faster order completion, ensuring meals reach patients accurately and at the ideal temperature. Future-focused strategies include personalized patient-facing meal ordering apps, expanded off-hours dining for critical care areas, and “food as medicine” automation for dietary insights.

2. Environmental Stewardship: Elevating environmental stewardship means recognizing environmental services (EVS) professionals as vital contributors to whole-person care and patient well-being, moving beyond traditional cleaning. This best practice involves leveraging emerging technologies to mitigate both physical and emotional suffering. By implementing rigorous infection-prevention protocols alongside advanced tools like AI-powered task management, autonomous disinfection, and smart restroom technology, organizations can create cleaner environments and redefine how EVS teams contribute to the healing experience.

• This approach frees EVS teams from routine tasks, empowering them to engage with patients through kindness, reassurance, and support, thus profoundly shaping the perception of care and enhancing the overall patient experience.

3. Patient Observation: Shifting from traditional vigilance to anticipatory, compassionate care, patient observation is emerging as a critical best practice for healthcare organizations. This involves evolving the role of patient observers into highly trained caregivers skilled in de-escalation, behavioral health, and crisis prevention, providing reassurance and emotional stability. By equipping observers with digital tools for real-time documentation and integrating insights from both patient behavior and environmental cues (such as temperature or noise), organizations can detect irregularities and prevent harm.

• Looking to the future, predictive observation leverages AI, biometric and radar-based technologies, including wearable sensors and non-contact systems, to detect subtle physiological changes indicative of distress before it becomes visible. This proactive strategy not only enhances patient safety, reduces patient falls, and improves emotional well-being, but also preserves patient dignity, significantly reduces avoidable suffering, and enables clinical professionals to operate at the top of their license, elevating overall care delivery.

This integrated technology ecosystem approach guided by compassion allows organizations to broaden their focus from hospital support services to healthcare hospitality, creating environments that prevent avoidable suffering and feel safer, cleaner, and more connected to the whole person, ultimately improving health and well-being for all.

“Intelligence with empathy: Building the future of compassionate care” is available for download HERE.

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