Anitha was admitted in the special private ward in a multispeciality hospital. This particular ward in the hospital boasted of facilities on par with a five star hotel. The rooms were air-conditioned single rooms with a remote controlled beds, microwave, television, nurse calling facility et al.
The patient and their attendee’s have options to choose from the set menu and also to order food on alacarte basis. Anitha ordered for a masala dosa, but was provided with an idli-sambar.
This information was shared with the floor manager who in turn gets in touch with the dietary in charge to handle this specific complaint. He also has to check with the dietary staff to verify if the complaint was handled to the patient’s satisfaction.
This leads to a delay in the time frame for resolution of complaints. Similarly other patient related complaints pertaining to the rooms and facilities were handled in silos and independently.
We brought in a lot of changes in terms of patient service experience including a manager for the floor, dedicated dietary supervisor for the floor, dedicated customer relation executives to take feedbacks from all patients on that floor.
This also resulted in multiple staff visiting the patient at different times during the day to collect feedback about the different services offered, thereby disturbing the patients at multiple times during the day.
However we realised that we had a long way to go in terms of satisfying the patient and there was no reduction in the number of complaints received from these patients.
We brainstormed on the problem internally and we realised that we could work as a TEAM to handle this issue better. This resulted in the inception of the “EXCLUSIVE GRAND ROUNDS”. This team comprised of the nurse manager, customer relations executive and the dietary in charge and floor manager.
We have a team visiting the patient on a daily basis and communicating with the patients regarding the patient experience on a daily basis with respect to each of their areas and taking measures on a real-time basis so the patient feels the compassion that we as a hospital stand for. This resulted in the team being sensitized to all the issues faced by the patient on a daily basis and taking our patient experience to a different level.
Lessons Learned
- TEAM WORK : Together Everyone Achieves More
- Good Communication is the key to customer delight
- Deliver compassion and care to increase patient experience and satisfaction