ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE

All employees at Children’s Hospital attend a four-hour Service Excellence training session. Topics covered during this class include Children’s Hospital’s vision, purpose and philosophy of Service Excellence. Top factors in patient/family satisfaction are presented along with specific examples of Service Excellence in Action.

Employees who are in frontline positions (the first staff with whom most patient families have contact) also attend a two-hour training session called Frontline: First Impressions. Program content includes patient and family first impressions, communication skills, and critiquing a video example of a frontline situation.

Most people expect to receive good service at restaurants, stores and other places of business. It is surprising, however, that in many leading polls concerning patient satisfaction, the way a patient was treated has more to do with their overall satisfaction of the hospital than the quality of care they received. The top factors in patient satisfaction listed below are directly linked to Children’s Hospital’s Service Excellence standards.

Press Ganey: Top 15 Factors in Patient Satisfaction

• Staff concern for patient’s privacy.
• Staff sensitivity to the inconvenience of hospitalization.
• Adequacy of family briefings on patient condition and treatment.
• Overall cheerfulness of hospital.
• Nurses’ attitude toward calls from patients.
• Extent to which nurses took patient’s problem seriously.
• Nurses’ attention to patient personal and special needs.
• Courtesy of the technician who took patient’s blood.
• Technician’s explanations of tests and treatments.
• Likelihood of recommending hospital.
• Nurses’ friendliness.
• Nurses’ promptness in responding to call button.
• Nurses’ information about tests and treatments.
• Technical skill of nurses.
• Skill of technician who took patient’s blood.

From The Satisfaction Report by Press Ganey

Gallup: Top 7 Factors in Patient Satisfaction

• Nurses anticipating your needs.
• Staff and departments working together as a team.
• Staff responding with care and compassion.
• Letting you know if there were going to be delays.
• Nurses explained about medications, procedures and routines.
• Nurses responding promptly to pain management.
• Nurses responding in a reasonable amount of time.

From the Gallup Organization