Mastering the HCAHPS by providing patients more than customer service, engage them in a customer experience. The audience was doctors and nurses, but the lessons apply to all hospital staff.

1. Hospital Customer Service vs.
Customer Experience
Thomas Masterson MD
medicalpublishing@gmail.com
July 2015

2. Ok, who is the customer?
• Babysitter shows up for the kids, who is the
customer.
• If I’m the parent, do I think I am the
customer?
• If I’m the child, do I think I am the customer?
• How about both… ?

3. Friday evening phone call
• PMD: “Sorry Tom, this is kind of a dump but
Mrs. Smith really needs to get admitted.”
• Tom: “No sir. Your patients are your most
valuable part of your practice. It is an honor to
be entrusted with their care. Send her over.”
• PMD: “I’m glad you said that Tom. I feel the
same way.”

4. Customer Service on YouTube
• https://youtu.be/7WRxEY8o3kc

5. Why is customer service tricky for doctors?
• We think of our product in scientific terms –
correct diagnosis, correct therapy, …
• Customer service is a cousin to likeable, i.e.
like high school.
• We all know doctors who provide excellent
customer service, but might have quality
issues.
• Who is qualified to teach me about customer
service? McDonalds, Disney,…?

6. Quint Studer
• Key phrases for Key Times
• AIDET
• Happy workers are the only people who can
make our patients happy.
• The ratio of praise to criticism should be 3:1.
• Catch people doing things right.

7. Specifically
• Knock on the door.
• Introduce yourself to everyone in the room.
• Ask permission to draw the curtain for your
privacy.
• Sit down.
• Ask permission to examine the patient.
• Provide an overview of plan of care and time
anticipated.
• Thank and ask for questions.

8. Malcolm Gladwell

9. What happens in a blink?
• An expert can provide an opinion.
• We can get an impression of a teacher that
holds up for a whole semester.
• We can get an impression of our doctor.

10. Harry Beckwith

11. You, Inc. The Art of Selling Yourself
• People buy you with their eyes.
• Keep communication clear and simple.
• Compliment others.
• Find Common Ground.
• Magic words: Thanks, Welcome, Name,
Children's names.
• On Time.
• Owner vs. Renter.

12. “Nobody cares how much you know,
until they know how much you care.”
- Zig Ziglar

13. Cleveland Clinic
• US News and World Report #5
• Empathy: The Human Connection to Patient
Care
https://youtu.be/cDDWvj_q-o8

14. Fred Lee phlebotomy
• https://youtu.be/0P2iWGCK998

15. What about the Soup Nazi?
• Why does he have customers?
• What are they there for?
• An experience is personal and memorable.

16. Metro Connection on NPR 7/4/2015
• They were interviewing Kojo Nnamdi at his
barber shop. Kojo had gone to the J+C Barber
Shop for 25 years.
• At the end of the interview, they say why 25
years? The barber said: “They tell me
everything, I guess I relax people.”
• And Kojo says: “It’s the environment.”
• Neither one says: “It’s the haircut.”

17. Personal and Memorable creates the
Customer Experience.

18. Dale Carnegie
• Remember that a person's name is, to that
person, the sweetest and most important sound
in any language.
• Smile.
• Become genuinely interested in other people.
• Make the other person feel important – and do it
sincerely.
• Don't criticize, condemn, or complain.
• Give honest and sincere appreciation.

19. Conversation Stack

20. "It's ShowTime Folks"

21. Create the Experience
• Be prepared.
• Knock, introduce yourself, shake everybody's hand. Sit
down.
• Find common ground. Show that you've done your
homework.
• Ask permission to examine the patient. Comment on
the exam.
• Tell them about the room and excellent care ahead.
• Ask what else you can do for them. Be ready for the
test question!

22. We have the ingredients
• Gracious patients.
• Highly skilled nursing… Handling IMC level
care on a routine basis.
• Knowledgeable and collaborative colleagues.
• 24/7 ICU Attendings in house.
• Creating excellence is just a matter of bringing
the ingredients together.

23. Building the customer experience
• Who would I recognize for improving the
customer experience? What person? What
department? What floor?
• What should we work on next? Physician
Communications? Med-Rec? Round the clock
patient dining? Quiet time?

24. “Nobody cares how much you know,
until they know how much you care.”
- Zig Ziglar