The Road to a Successful Empowerment Program

Functioning in the madness of the modern world of healthcare, what would be a better way to handle upset guests on the spot than with empowered employees?

At Park Ridge Hospital, we wanted to ask our associates one simple question: “What are you willing to do to help solve a problem and make your customer satisfied?”

We want to educate, motivate and empower our valued associates, to design a more reliable process to satisfy our guests even when something unpleasant may happen during their experiences here at Park Ridge Hospital, even if it is as small as a wait time that seems too long.

First, we recruited a small team of Ambassadors from throughout our organization. They were presented basic information about an Employee Empowerment program and they were asked what Empowerment meant to them. They had great ideas about how the program would work and created a mission statement, a purpose statement and a set of rules and guidelines in a format that any associate would feel comfortable using.

Our mission statement became : “Caring, compassionate associates with the ability to provide assistance and make informed decisions in the pursuit of total customer loyalty.”

Our purpose statement: “To empower our associates to use effective communication to enhance the customer’s satisfaction experience.”

The team decided what tools they felt might be most helpful to create a better experience for any upset guest that we might encounter. A department was selected to test the program and was introduced to the program with some minor training sessions our kickoff began April 1, 2006.

We decided to use gift cards as our main initiative. Every employee in the test department was empowered to give them out when they saw a dissatisfied hospital guest. We loaded our “plastic toolbox” with a variety of gift cards with different values and gifts such as certificates for lunch or supper in our cafeteria, movie tickets, McDonald’s lunch cards and gift cards to Lowe’s, Wal-Mart, Applebee’s or Ruby Tuesday.

Associates were excited to know that we had empowered them to use the gift cards however they decided when they needed to use them. No questions asked. The toolbox was located within the department where all associates could access is without asking a supervisor or a manager. They simply completed a log with information so that we can track data such as the guest’s name, the nature of the complaint, the associate’s name and what gift item was given. Funding for the initial gift cards was purchased through Administration.

Another tool developed by the Ambassador Team was a Level Headed Chart. Most healthcare workers learn how to judge a patient’s level of pain by using a chart with different faces that can be associated with the amount of pain a patient feels. So, using a pain level chart as a guide, we developed our own diagram to improve employee ability to gauge customer dissatisfaction. Employees simply look at the chart and locate the most appropriate face for the situation at hand. Choices are Level I, Level II or a Level III and are used to help them determine how upset are guest really is and ascertain what might be needed to calm them down or to make amends. We developed some scripting and asked associates to pause and think of what they are going to say to make things right for this guest and then throw in that little something extra to help make a bad situation better. We also wanted to create an awareness among associates that these items may not make the problem go away, but it at least shows that we care and we are making an attempt to make the situation better.

Here are the Levels and their gift equivilants:

• Level I-- a lunch pass to the cafeteria
• Level II-- movie ticket(s) or lunch at McDonald’s
• Level III-- a $20 gift card to Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, Applebee’s or Ruby Tuesday.

The gifting levels are not set in stone, but to help give associates a basic guideline. Remember, the genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission, so there is no “wrong” decision in our quest to satisfy.

Testing was done for a three month period of time: April, May and June. A data collection team met periodically with different associates from the pilot department to obtain feedback as the program progressed. We wanted to make sure that every thing was working and be able to make changes happen along the way.

We found that testing the program first was very valuable to us. We were working with 20-25 employees instead of trying to train 800 employees at one time. The program proved to be a success and the feedback was very positive.

The associates loved the program and felt that it made their jobs easier and helped them to show even more compassion than they had ever been able to show before. We all realize that people are not at a hospital for luxury but because they are sick. It helps to be able to improve a difficult situation by explaining, apologizing and rewarding.

Our data has shown us that it costs far less money and time for us to give a small gift than to lose a valuable customer. Out of the 20-25 employees, 15 used the program during the testing time. Of the 500-600 patients that we saw in this department per month, over the three month period, we logged 48 complaints. Most of the complaints were minor and the most common complaint was a longer than expected wait time.

Overall, Project Empowerment has been successful. The pilot department did not have any suggestions to change the program, but for us to implement it as is.

We anticipate bringing all departments on board as of January 1, 2007. Budgeting will be done by each department by what they feel that their needs are. Some departments are larger and see a more increased volume of patients; others are smaller and have very few complaints. We want all associates to be aware and educated on the program and how it works. Each department will be able to tweak the program to their own specific needs so that it works for them.

The bottom line is that we want all of our guests to have a good experience in Park Ridge Hospital and know that our mission statement reads true. Our mission is to provide professional health care in an atmosphere of Christian compassion and healing. We want guests to see that we truly care about them and what happens to them. We want to make sure our associates believe fully in the mission statement and will do everything possible to carry it out.