So-called “mystery shoppers” are secretly taking notes about waiting room service:
The note-taker is a mystery shopper, one of a new breed of hospital employees in Boston and nationwide who secretly watch fellow workers to see whether patients are treated courteously and helpfully.
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“We’re finding that as you do these kinds of programs and give feedback to staff members on the front lines, their behavior changes,” said Paul Levy, the hospital’s chief executive. “There’s more consistency in how patients are greeted and what’s done for them.”
Levy is a living joke! If he hadn’t reduced staff and cut salaries of many remaining employees of the BI-Deaconess Hospital, he wouldn’t need spys in the waiting room.
Talk about sh!t… No wonder many of their staff ( both medical and nonmedical ) have made a major bee-line to BWH, the Lahey Clinic and other Boston area hospitals.
Who can blame them?
“Dr. Michael Gustafson, vice president for clinical excellence. He also pointed out that shoppers don’t capture what happens once the patient gets “behind the office door, and that’s the most important part of the experience.” “
The most important person in the company is the receptionist. That first contact forms your impression of the company you are dealing with.
KOKO, I m sorry you don’t like the company you work for, so quit.
Maybe the reposts of the spy will cause the staffing level to increase.
I, for one, have left doctors because the front staff is so rude.
I applaud the use of ’spys’ as a tool to improve the already stressful visit to a medical facility
When will Levy be sending the spies to the OR?
Nice, hawk. So punish the doctor who might be an excellent diagnostician and figure out what you have, and save your life or at least a bunch of money avoiding unnecessary test because you find the front staff is “rude”.
Ridiculous. Another blip against “patient centered care”… these same lunatics will post anonymously on internet sites saying in capital letters “terrible office, avoid him/her”.
Hopefully, you’ll get to the “nice” receptionist, and be treated by a charlatan. That’s what people like you deserve.
“KOKO, I m sorry you don’t like the company you work for, so quit.”
Who said I worked there, or even if I ever worked there?
And…if the people at the front desk are the most important people in the institution(!), why are they paid the least?
Guys, this if fundamental customer service stuff. If you want to be in the free market, you need to start thinking in terms of yourselves as a service profession. Since you don’t really give the public any way to rate you on your skills, this is the kind of stuff they are left with.
Of course a hospital administrator worries about it – it’s his job to monitor the finances of the hospital. And if people aren’t coming because of the way they’re treated, that’s a problem.
“And if people aren’t coming because of the way they’re treated, that’s a problem.”
Which is more important. the treatment administered by the MD or the treatment of the patient by the secretary?
By the way, the BWH does not have, nor do they intend to have “Spies” in their hospital. Professionally, such actions would be far beneath them.
Thank God for the BWH!
KoKo and Mike,
Are you seriously suggesting that in your practice, you would be unconcerned if your front office staff were rude to your patients? Doesn’t that say something about your attitude toward your patients in general, if you’re indifferent to the treatment they receive from your support staff?
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