Customer Service

Is Your Hospital Ready for Crowdsourced Suggestions?

by Ed Bennett on April 4, 2010

in Customer Service,Hospitals

This past December, Chris Quigley found himself laid up in King’s College Hospital, London. Flat on his back and with plenty of time to think, he realized that many things about his care could be better.

He wasn’t complaining, but did see opportunities for improvement. Unlike most hospital patients, he didn’t just say something to hospital  staff, or fill out a suggestion card. Chris decided to get the community involved. With a laptop and WiFi access at his hospital bed, he created a Web site called  Help Us Improve Kings The site uses a platform called DelibDialogueApp, from a company he founded.

From the Home page:

Help us improve King’s College Hospital!

If you’ve got an idea – add it!  Or look around and rate / comment on other people ideas!

This site’s been set up to enable patients, employees, and visitors (family/friends of patients) to help share ideas of how to improve King’s College Hospital.

King’s is undoubtedly a great hospital doing great work – however all organisations can improve, and the best people to help King’s to improve is US – the people who interact with King’s on a daily basis.

He also shot this video and posted it on YouTube:

Now to be honest, after an initial flurry of activity, the conversation has stopped. About a dozen suggestions were submitted and most had only a few comments. There’s been no discussion since January in spite of coverage from Wired and the BBC. That’s the nature of Web 2.0 tools. Quick to create and easy to launch,  many will fade away but some will take off.

But here’s the question to consider – How would your hospital react if one of your patients did this?

UPDATE – Garrick pointed me to an impressive site from BJC HealthCare called Make Medicine Better.

Check out the Share Your Ideas section for active and frank discussions on efficient care, expensive ER visits, CT Scan risks , health reform,  and many more.

This is how it should be done.

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Hospital Crisis Communications and Social Media

by Ed Bennett on April 1, 2009

in Customer Service,Hospitals

There are many ways that social media tools can benefit a hospital. We’ve discussed several of them on this blog, but there’s a powerful use that sometimes gets overlooked – Crisis Communications

Innovis Health in Fargo, North Dakota is in the middle of a such crisis right now. For the past week Fargo has been threatened by flooding from the Red River. Water levels reached historic 40’+ levels, and large areas of the city are still affected.  For several days, Innovis was the only hospital fully open in Fargo and remains the site for Blackhawk helicopter evacuation landings, the Red Cross, a VA satellite office and more.

A US Coastguard helicopter arrives at Innovis Health, Fargo, bearing an evacuee.

A US Coastguard helicopter arrives at Innovis Health, Fargo, bearing an evacuee.

Carol Russell manages the social media program for Innovis. She is the CEO of Russell Herder, a firm based in Minneapolis, and – along with her partner Brian Herder and two senior staff – has handled outreach communications for Innovis since the crisis started. The team has worked 24/7, gathering information from Innovis staff, writing the blog updates at innovishealth.wordpress.com and handling the Twitter feed, @innovishealth. In addition, they release critical announcements to an extensive traditional and social media networks.

I spoke to Carol about the impact of these tools in an emergency situation. Here’s what she had to say:

“The crisis has clearly proved the value of Social Media in several areas.

First, it decreased demand from the media. Hospital phone lines need to remain open for emergency and family calls, and the blog cut down on many calls from local and national media. We point them to the blog with the promise that all announcements will be posted immediately.

Next, these tools make it easy for us to manage communications remotely. We’re based in Minneapolis and our client is in Fargo, but we’re able to fully assist them and not be in the way.

In addition, by creating this blog we are able to take control of the message. We don’t need to rely on the ability to reach preoccupied local media to publish updates, and there are no concerns about the message getting garbled.

Finally, these tools can be quickly implemented. We created the blog and had it live with the first update in one hour. When messages about service access and patient safety need to get out, it’s absolutely critical to establish a communication channel immediately.”

None of this would matter if no one read the updates, but that’s not the case. Since the blog went up on March 27, over 5,000 people have gone to it for news and updates. The Twitter feed has over 255 followers, and many are passing these updates along to others. In addition, there have been over 1,100 views by reporters of news releases pitched via social media distribution.  While the current crisis is far from over, thanks to a major blizzard that exacerbated the situation yesterday, the situation seems to have stabilized somewhat. But even after the flood waters subside, it’s clear that these newly established communication channels will continue to have value for Innovis Health.

Every hospital has a crisis communications plan. Does yours include social media as a tool?

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Small Mammals and My Dentist

by Ed Bennett on February 8, 2009

in Customer Service

A few weeks ago I needed some emergency dental work, having lost a half a molar to a sticky Mentos. My dentist retired last year, and I hadn’t found a new one. Fortunately, my wife and daughter had recently switched to a new dental practice, Leikin Baylin Dental Care, and were pleased with the doctors and staff.  Pleased is an understatement – they recommend them anytime the subject comes up in conversation. It’s true word of mouth marketing.

I called at Noon and was in a chair one hour later. Dr. Scott Levy said I needed a crown, and by 3pm I was home with a temporary. The staff was genuinely friendly and helpful – not just with me, but with each other. It’s a small practice in a nondescript strip mall, but the facilities and equipment were spotless and up-to-date.

The entire experience was positive, but it was the follow up that really impressed. We scheduled an appointment for the permanent crown, and they asked:

“What’s the best way to reach you for appointment reminders?”

“What are my options?”

“We can mail a postcard, leave a phone message, email a reminder, or send a text message. What works for you?”

Sensing an opportunity for this blog post, I asked for the works. 24 hours later, there was a thank-you email with a link to a customer satisfaction survey. Three days before my appointment there was a reminder email, a text message and a voice-mail. The email had directions, instructions for re-scheduling – everything I needed in one message. At 8am on the morning of the appointment, I received one last text message with call back instructions for last minute cancellations. And yes, there was a postcard in the mail.

Please note that they don’t use Twitter, Facebook, or any of the other Social Media tools we use, but they are still far ahead of larger medical practices. The small mammal reference? Go here for details

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