Anyone else feel like a robot reciting customer service scripts all the time?

[rntj]

Just wanted to vent at how stupid it is to have to recite the same script (AIDET, for those of you unlucky enough to know what I'm talking about) for every patient all the time, with the whole point being to implant the words "very good care" in their minds so that the hospital can get higher-rated patient satisfaction surveys. "Very good care" is the utmost highest level you can rate the facility on the survey. I am one of those people where, if I'm going to give you the highest possible rating, you better be darn near perfect. So I don't find it surprising if people do not choose that option. Does management really think if you keep saying "very good care" all the time that it will actually brainwash the patients into giving us that rating? I know all this has to do with the future tying of reimbursement to patient satisfaction surveys (which to me is ridiculous--if they want to tie reimbursement to anything, it should be the overall quality of clinical outcomes, IMHO) but I just feel like such a drone having to recite a script all the time. I believe my interactions with my patients should be organic and sincere and not some stupid script where I am trying to brainwash them. It just really irks me. Plus we get audited on them constantly. OK. Rant over.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

It has really gotten overboard with all of these customer service changes. I cringe when people say "wow this is like staying in a hotel." Yep that is what they want you to think. Who cares is your BP is steadily going up, your oxygen saturation is dropping as long as your ice pitcher is constantly refilled the moment you request, I provide juice and snacks to all your visitors.

I'm sorry that patient in room 200 fell from the bed, I was tied up in the nourishment room with coffee requests while the bed alarm was going off. How does that sound?

We have AIDET, hourly rounding, walking rounds with a script, room service for meals.

I once had a patient's father refuse discharge [for a patient who should have never been admitted in the first place], yell at me for trying to discharge them because of how "sick" his son was [jr had fainted at school, had a completely negative work-up and my other patient was actively dying.... yup, your kid's the "sick" one] and then say "we want to stay for another night, this is a nice hotel." I had no problem writing in my note that day that the patient was medically cleared for discharge but the family refused.

[caregiver1977]

I know far more about customer service than I do nursing. I have actually gotten bonuses and a promotion based on good customer service.

I am all for patients being treated with dignity and respect, and to not be talked to harshly by healthcare staff, but I don't know if the whole customer service thing is really possible in most healthcare settings. Customer service often means providing what the customer wants, whether it is good for them or bad. If I am a cashier at McDonalds and a 450 pound, 5'4" person comes in and orders 8 Big Macs and procedes to eat them, I can't do or say anything about it. The only thing I can do is ask him/her if they want fries with that.

Sometimes doing what is medically necessary for a person is not going to make them a happy customer.

[caregiver1977]

you're right -- the usa is nuts! all this customer service nonsense really is nonsense, and the hospital does not need to be a pleasurable, satisfying experience for everyone. where do you live? can i come?

i understand that it can't be a pleasurable, satisfying experience for everyone, but you don't want people to be unnecessarily miserable either, do you? (btw, don't want healthcare staff to be unnecessarily miserable either).