Customer service?

I really enjoyed Kim's recent post on the patient/client dilemma. Yes, the business world creeps into every little area, including your friendly, neighborhood hospital, and hospitals run by Uncle Sam, like Madison.

So, since I'm nosy (and a former employee in this business sector), I looked around to see what everyone's been talking about for medical and/or hospital-oriented customer service and here's what I found.

First, I went to Google and did a few arbitrary searches and the results are listed below:

• 17,900,000 for hospitals+customer service
• 12,000,000 for hospitals+bad experience
• 18,200,000 for healthcare+customer service
• 453,000 for healthcare+bad experience
• 463,000 for doctor's office+customer service
• 422,000 for doctor's office+bad experience
• As you can see, this is a pretty popular topic.

Next, I went sifting through some of the results. Not surprisingly, some of the searches revealed more articles linked to bad experience than those linked to customer service.

So what was really interesting about these searches? Many are advertisements for training clerical staff. From one newspaper site, Boston area hospitals employed secret shoppers to check on staff on phones and in doctors' offices. Most likely, they are using secret shoppers based on this article from Houston that shows the bottom line for many hospitals is coming down to customer service. If you aren't nice to people in certain areas of the hospital, they won't come back and spend money on their outpatient services.

Finally, the most interesting thing I came across was this article called "What can we learn from Mickey Mouse" which talks about the book "If Disney Ran Your Hospital" by Fred Lee. This article was interesting because even though it is three years old, people are finding it and still commenting on it.

Here are some of the best comments, including one from the author. I think the last one reiterates what I think and what Kim mentions in a nice, little package.

Comment from: Jane RN, MS [Visitor]
Disney does customer service like nobody else, having experienced it myself in '04. Our comfort was their priority. Nothing seemed beyond consideration, and each employee made us feel welcome. "Disney Hospital" patients would feel safe, appreciated, respected, and more at ease. They would rest better, eat better, heal faster, perhaps even leave sooner. How much better things would be if we truly treated them as our guests rather than as interruptions, or a room number needing meds. I've seen it too often. Are we too proud to provide this level of service?

Comment from: Lisa [Visitor] · http://www.hospitalimpact.org
People do not need a book or a Disney staff to teach customer care, what they need is to look at how they'd like to be treated, "do onto others as you would yourself."

Comment from: Fred Lee [Visitor]
Maybe the best way of saying it is – a hospital without compassion is like Disney without fun.

Comment from: 20 yr. RN - (Familiar with butts and stressed family) [Visitor] (NOTE: this is a comment in regard to a person, most likely a nurse (but not identified as such) talking about dealing with butts and obnoxious patients)
It's not about you and what you have to deal with. It is about compassion for others and what they are having to deal with, having a heartfelt desire to provide the best, "CARE," possible to meet their, and yes, their family members needs. It's about having patients/clients and their families leave the hospital knowing their needs where met in an exceptionally professional and caring manner whether the client leaves the hospital by car or by hearse. The intent is not to create an amusement park in a hospital. It is about being patient/client centered in ones thinking rather than being task centered.

The holidays are coming...

And, as usual, I never feel like I'm ready! I've been busy shopping for Thanksgiving dinner and cleaning out cabinets and freezers. After that, I'll get to clean some more in between working.

On top of it this year, I'll be fluffing and buffing around here as I get ready to host the Thanksgiving edition of Change of Shift. The submissions are trickling in, so if you're so inclined, get going on yours and send it in!

You know it's the holidays on our unit because food is appearing everywhere. It's tough to be a nurse or hospital employee when wherever you look (in only JCAHO-approved places, of course) there's food--candy, cookies, you name it. A few people have dropped hints to families that no nurse can deny a good piece of chocolate. I'll second that, thank you. Bring it on! I'll just have to do a few more laps around the Hotel to burn off that candy!

More later! Send those posts in...I'll be waiting!

Work is still...work

Yes, one day off after working an evening and then waking up early with a kindergartener is an exhausting experience. After a very nice day visiting my sister, seeing some of my old friends in that second largest 'burb of the county where I used to work and having lunch with C., then coming home and baking a couple of pies, I was too tired to do much around the house. I put my favorite vaccuuming CD on the stereo, cranked it, and vegged for a half hour.

It was back to work today and I felt really slow. First, we had an in-service today on Fragmin. Most of the people were watching the shiny stuff--the pens that light up and the other goodies. Besides being a big sales pitch, it was reasonably interesting. We even talked about the famous debate of "should you blow the bubble". Second, my boss changed my assignment. I was a little perturbed, but I got two reasonable patients and the med cart on the main hall. I was running a little, but it turned out reasonably well considering everything, including an irascible patient or two and an exploding colostomy bag (happily a controlled explosion!).

In the last few days, I've found some interesting sites and articles on the internet. Hope you enjoy them. More items to come...

Check out the patient safety info at this site: http://www.patientsafety.gov/resources.html

The NY Times recently ran an interesting article on Hepatitis C: http://health.nytimes.com/ref/health/healthguide/esn-hepatitisC-ess.html

Can chewing gum may shorten your hospital stay? The jury's still out on that issue, but there may be more research to come. Could Wrigley's be the next sponsor? Stay tuned.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/579243