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Show information, simplification, coordination, and complaint procedures (Epstein, 1990). billing system is one example that benefits both staff and customer. 1. Reception refers specifically to how the customer is treated during interaction with front-line staff - how the customer is received. The admissions process alone communicates a great deal to patients. It can communicate that a hospital cares about speed and efficiency in obtaining information, or it can communicate that a hospital cares about assuaging anxiety and establishing a caring relationship with the patient. Hospital admissions systems often focus on payment more than pain (Albrecht and Zemke, 1985). The Division of Ambulatory Care Services at the University of Utah Hospital recently piloted a reception and escort service aimed at customer-friendly service. The desk has been staffed by clinic managers, support staff, and even Division administrators. Patients often skip by the main information desk and head into the main hall looking for signs. As they pass by the Ambulatory Care information desk, they are greeted in a friendly manner and asked if they need assistance. The workers at the desk provide directions and information, and, when patients are in wheelchairs or require further assistance, the workers at the desk escort the patients to the appropriate outpatient unit. Patient response to the service is quite positive, and confusion in the hospital lobby is decreased. As a result, the escort desk has become a permanent feature in the hospital lobby, and it is now manned by employees specifically hired for the task. 2. Providing customers with understandable information is another important aspect of customer-friendly systems. Patients can more easily cope with the inherent anxieties of diagnosis and treatment if they are better informed on what to expect. In addition, information should explain standard routines and special features associated with the specific service to which the patient is being admitted. 3. Simplification of rules and procedures is also essential to a customer-friendly system. Simplifying a hospital's The University of Utah Hospital basically has three general areas from which a patient can receive billing statements: the Physicians' Billing Office, the Hospital Billing Office, and a number of separate, specialty billing offices. If a patient has in-patient orthopedic surgery, for example, he or she will receive a billing statement from the Hospital Billing department for a hospital room, x-rays, lab work, and all supplies used. The patient will also receive a bill from Orthopedic Consultants, one of the specialty billing offices, for the orthopedic surgeon's fees for service. Additionally, the patient will receive a bill from the hospital's Physician's Billing Office for the anesthesiologist's professional services. Finally, the patient will receive a bill from Radiology Associates, another of the specialty billing offices, for the official interpretation of his or her x-rays by a radiologist whom the patient never meets. If patients have any questions about their billing statements, they have to try to contact the appropriate billing department. Most often their inquiries are transferred from department to department until they get to the right one. Billing arrangements, already complicated by individual health insurance requirements, should be simplified and should be coordinated from one central department. Centralization would increase customer satisfaction and save valuable staff time by preventing unnecessary and lengthy telephone calls. Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in San Diego, California, improved its billing practices and patient relations by involving patients in focus group discussions. The focus group participants indicated that "billing was one aspect that determined whether they return to a hospital" (Bernstein, Harris, & Meloy, 1989). As a result of the focus groups, mechanical changes were implemented which ensured the transfer of calls to the correct staff member, telephone answering protocols were developed, hospital billing forms were revised with increased clarity, service 80 WHAT ABOUT THE PATIENT? |
