ROSWELL, Ga., June 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- When people are admitted to a hospital the first thing they ask is, "When can I go home?" The challenge for a hospital is to try to make the patient experience as comfortable and home-like as possible. Kleenex, Scott and Cottonelle brands can help. By creating a home-like experience in hospitals, these trusted brands can increase overall patient satisfaction at a fraction of the costs of other investments.

That's the impetus behind the Make a Healing Home program from Kimberly-Clark Professional, a new initiative that helps hospitals enhance the patient experience by providing a sense of safety, security and comfort.

"Studies have shown that hospitals that focus on the patient experience have shorter average lengths of stay and a decreased need for follow-up care," said Karel van der Mandele, senior director, Health and Wellness, Kimberly-Clark Professional, North America. "Creating a more home-like environment through familiar products that patients know and trust can help. When patients are more comfortable and happy, it can improve the healing process and lead to higher patient satisfaction ratings and, potentially, better HCAHPS scores."

The new program offers well-known brands and hand hygiene, tissue and towel solutions that can make the hospital environment feel more like home and focuses on four key areas:

• The patient experience – According to one study, 70 percent of patients said that the little things, such as having familiar brands from home in their rooms, like Kleenex and Scott brand products, mean so much during a hospital stay.
• Staff enablement – Make a Healing Home is aimed at inspiring environmental services professionals to work together to enhance their role as empathetic caregivers. It joins the Heart of Healthcare program, which was developed with the Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE) to provide training and recognition for EVS professionals.
• Operational efficiency – Reliable, high-quality products help promote hand hygiene and enhance efficiencies, giving EVS professionals more time to care for patients.
• Contamination control – Make a Healing Home provides solutions that encourage good hand hygiene practices and effective surface disinfection to help break the chain of healthcare-associated infection (HAIs) transmission throughout a hospital.

Highly trained specialists

Make a Healing Home provides a team of specialists trained in the science of hygiene who work directly with hospitals to provide evidence-based recommendations that can help create more home-like healing. These healthcare specialists conduct on-site assessments that include:

• Interviews to measure engagement levels and compare results with similar facilities
• Observational research and customized reports to help implement best practices in hand hygiene and surface disinfection
• Tools to measure patient and employee satisfaction
• Data and analytics on the quality of care and the patient experience, patient satisfaction with employee and hospital performance, and the hospital visitor experience

For more information about the Make a Healing Home, visit KCProfessional.com/HealingHome16.

About Kimberly-Clark Professional
Kimberly-Clark Professional partners with businesses to create Exceptional Workplaces, helping to make them healthier, safer and more productive. Key brands in this segment include: Kleenex, Scott, WypAll, Kimtech and Jackson Safety. To see how Kimberly-Clark Professional is helping people around the world to work better, please visit www.kcprofessional.com.

About Kimberly-Clark
Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) and its well-known global brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 175 countries. Every day, nearly a quarter of the world's population trust Kimberly-Clark's brands and the solutions they provide to enhance their health, hygiene and well-being. With brands such as Kleenex, Scott, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex and Depend, Kimberly-Clark holds No. 1 or No. 2 share positions in 80 countries. To keep up with the latest news and to learn more about the Company's 145-year history of innovation, visit www.kimberly-clark.com or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

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SOURCE Kimberly-Clark Professional