Wayne Memorial Hospital to improve customer service
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on January 13, 2005 2:02 PM
CSI: Goldsboro.
No, that's not a new TV series on the fall schedule. But it is being broadcast locally and exclusively at Wayne Memorial Hospital.
CSI in this case stands for customer service initiative. Sherry Rogers, director of staff development, is credited with the idea.
"It just got too long to write 'customer service initiative,'" she said. As simply as that, the theme began.
Ms. Rogers admits to loving the show, so says it wasn't difficult to play off its popularity. Posters around the hospital advertising staff training feature a handful of staff members posed seriously like those on the TV version.
Rick Rogers, vice-president of personnel, said the effort to train hospital staff in customer service stemmed from a recent patient satisfaction survey. He said the hospital didn't do badly in that area but "we knew we could do better."
Instead of purchasing a packaged program and hiring presenters, he said, hospital employees worked together to customize what would work best at Wayne Memorial.
"We brought them together and asked, 'What could our standards be?'" he said. "They set the standards by which we'll all be evaluated."
The hospital made its own video being used in the training, with employees from various areas of the hospital playing the roles. Other staff members lead the one-hour sessions.
"Employees are having a lot of fun with it," Rick Rogers said. "And since we used our own staff, they're hearing from themselves."
Instead of a mission statement, the program features a "passion statement" which says, "We will deliver the best customer service, at the right time, with the right attitude. We will anticipate the needs of our customers, treating each customer as the only customer."
William Paugh, hospital president and CEO, said while the idea might appear to be loosely based on a popular television show, it also sends a valuable message.
"We all believe that our future rests on how well we treat patients," he said. "We're looking at what really is good customer service and then came up with this program. Now we're taking this program back through the whole house.
"Folks will be evaluated against this; we think it's that important."