About A. Woodward & Associates Our company’s primary focus is to help clients develop healthy patient and staff relationships. Our consulting services are customized to your organization, and your specific needs. Areas of expertise include customer service, patient satisfaction and employee engagement. A. Woodward & Associates was established in 1999 by Anita B. Woodward, MBA, FACHE. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, we have clients in all parts of the country. Anita has over 20 years of healthcare management, customer service, and human resource experience, and her associates have a variety of complementary skills and experiences.
July 2009 Newsletter
Creating a Healing Environment A healing environment is important to patients, families, and the people who work in healthcare. Healing environments are calming rather than chaotic, they inspire confidence rather than fear, and they make it easier rather than harder for users to be seen or provide care or service. Hospitals being built today generally pay a lot of attention to the concept of a healing environment. They use skylights and large windows, have water features and lots of plants, and use soothing colors on walls. If you do not have the luxury of being in such a hospital, here are some quick tips, assembled by people who have recently been patients or who work in hospitals. Try implementing a few of these ideas and make someone’s life a little bit easier.
1. Install plenty of coat hooks. Many exam rooms have none. Ditto many restroom stall doors. Think about where people need to hang coats, purses and clothing, and put in a hook!
2. Re-arrange waiting room furniture. Make the room seem less stiff and intimidating by creating conversational groupings instead of long, straight rows of chairs. Use L or U-shapes. Add coffee tables or end tables.
3. Add plants. Waiting rooms, lobbies, coffee shops, cafeterias, and lounges can all benefit from a little bit of nature. Fakes are fine, as long as they are not obviously plastic. Dusty fakes, though, are a no-no. They make patients worry about cleanliness.
4. Lose at least half your signs. Most waiting rooms and reception areas these days have so many signs that no one could possibly read them all. They look cluttered, disorganized and messy. The worst offenders are the pieces of paper taped to the wall so long ago that the edges are curled. If you really want people to read something, consider giving it to them as a handout.
5. Reduce clutter. Walk into your work area as if you were not familiar with it. What impression does it give your customer? Remember that clutter seems disorganized, and none of us wants to receive any service from someone who is disorganized.
6. Keep the bathrooms spotless. Whether it is fair or not, people are neurotic about bathroom cleanliness. TP on the floor is the most obvious, but check out the lighting. Is it bright enough? How about the corners and spaces where stall door frames meet on the floor? They often build up dirt and gunk, and most people think it is gross.
7. Do not have unattended reception desks or windows. When a person enters someone else’s space and sees an empty reception space, it feels cold and impersonal. If you no longer have staffing for these areas, remove the desk, or hang a large painting over the window. It is better to have nothing than to be confronted with the message that "we no longer think our customers are important enough to be greeted when they arrive."
8. Greet people when they do come into your area. Although this is not facility-related, it sets an environmental tone when someone says hello when they see a person arriving in their area. This is true if you work behind a nurses' station, in a reception area, or just happen to be the first person someone sees when they enter your department.
When A. Woodward & Associates is engaged to assess the service culture of an organization, we include an assessment of the healing environment of both patient and staff work areas. If you have questions about this process, contact us. You can do your own assessment by putting yourself in your customer’s shoes and walking through your own department. Many changes can be made without spending a lot of money.
Upcoming Speaking Engagements Anita Woodward, FACHE, will be speaking in the following locations this year. Please stop by to visit, and let her know how we can make our e-newsletter and our consulting services more useful to you. September 10-11, 2009 - Ohio Society for Healthcare Consumer Advocacy (SHCA), Columbus OH. At this year's annual conference Anita will be presenting "Communication Techniques that Establish Trust and Build Great Relationships." For more information or to register, go to www.oha.net or email mhansen@cchseast.org. November 18, 2009, Press Ganey Client Conference, National Harbor, MD. At this year's annual meeting Anita will present "How to Successfully Engage Employees." For more information, go to www.pressganey.com.
Lost Belongings
In our last newsletter, we asked our readers to share their best practices for reducing lost patient belongings. Reducing the number of lost belongings is important for several reasons: Patients and families feel we do not really care about them if we lose their possessions. A huge investment of staff time goes into trying to find lost items. If we ever tallied up the amount of money we spend on the time we search, it would be enormous! Employees are frustrated by the whole process. They do not like to waste time, and would rather be doing their normal duties. It costs money! Not only do we incur the "soft" costs of wasted staff time, we incur the hard costs of replacing lost items. We received some great ideas from readers. Read on for suggestions that might help you! I have been a patient advocate for 14 years. I have spent up to half of my work time looking for patient’s lost belongings. For me – it’s all about: Good Communication = Customer Satisfaction. I work with two volunteers. I train them and give them a list of all the new patients. The volunteers visit these patients; welcome them; give some helpful scripted information; then, before they leave the room the volunteer explains our 'Lost Belonging Policy': "I want to remind you to send anything you have that is personal and 'special' to you home with your family or friends, or put your belongings in our hospital safe as we cannot be responsible for them. Our priority is concentrating on your health...so you can go home..." When they say this, the volunteer marks an "L" on the visitation sheet next to the patient's name. If something is later reported lost, we find the patient's name on the volunteer's census to see if there is an "L" by the name. If so, we have already discussed this with them and we remind them that, "We will do everything possible to help locate your belongings, but as the volunteer said on the first day of their admission, we cannot be responsible for them. We will give you a call if your belongings are located. Thanks for letting us know." The nurses on the units answer the same way so we are all being consistent. This proactive communication has helped lessen the number of missing items. -- Submitted by Christy Mumper, Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, Chesapeake, VA. [We bet this method also improves the patient's satisfaction with the hospital's response to a missing item.] Here we have a very detailed inventory sheet that the ED or the unit RN completes. Patients sign the inventory; we offer to lock valuables with security. If the patient refuses, they sign that they refused this option. Belongings then are not our responsibility if an item is lost and the patient is alert and oriented. If they have a diagnosis of confusion, or are heavily medicated, then we will take responsibility. Each patient area will be charged the cost of replacing any lost/damaged item. -- Submitted by Sandi Lisit-Stein, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Highland Park Hospital, in Highland Park, IL. In February, our hospital began trialing a "personal belongings box." When a patient is admitted, s/he is screened for their use of glasses, dentures, hearing aids, or contacts. A checkmark by any of these items qualifies them for a clear, lightweight case that houses the valuable(s). It has three compartments (one the size of a denture cup, one the size of contacts/hearing aids, and one the size of a glasses' case). The transparent container is labeled and remains with the patient through their entire stay. We expect a sharp decline of lost valuables. The case may be discarded at the time of discharge, but is often taken home and used by the client. The cost is under $2.00/ea. -- Submitted by Nancy Sanders, Howard Regional Health System, Kokomo, IN. [Several vendors now make containers specifically for patient valuables. Some have exhibited at the annual meeting of the Society for Healthcare Consumer Advocacy. Please contact us by email or contact SHCA for more information.] We developed a worksheet that walks the staff through the investigation process. These are the steps I used to take once they referred the patient/family to me. Instead, it guides the staff through certain steps that they can take right away before too much time has passed. By the time it gets to me, I know what steps have already been taken and don't have to waste time repeating them. It allows us to make a decision faster as to whether or not reimbursement is in order and thus minimizes the frustration on the part of the patient/family. -- Submitted by Deborah Caldwell, Summa Health System, Akron, OH [Summa also uses a form that tracks patient belongings as they move through the system. Having staff do the searches may increase a sense of responsibility for keeping track of items, too.] Try rewarding staff who successfully keep track of patients' belongings. Randomly pick a patient who has moved through the system. When the patient is discharged with all their goods, send a thank you note, or give a little gift like a candy bar, to the care-givers! You can have fun with this, reward behavior you want to see repeated, and draw attention to the issue all at the same time. -- Submitted by Anita Woodward, A. Woodward & Associates. If you have successfully reduced the number of lost belongings in your facility, please tell us how. We may continue to publish some of the best ideas in our newsletter.
Story ideas, case studies wanted! We are looking for good case studies to share, and we always want to publish articles that answer your questions or help with your challenges. Please email us with your ideas. Thanks.
About This Newsletter This newsletter is published for clients and colleagues of A. Woodward & Associates, and for others who are interested in customer service, employee relations, and organizational communication, especially in healthcare organizations. If you would like to add someone to our subscriber list, please contact us at anita@anitawoodward.com(or simply reply to this email). Be sure to provide the subscriber's name and organization. If this newsletter is reaching you in error, we apologize. To unsubscribe, please email us and put "Unsubscribe" in the subject line.