Customer Service and 24 hour visitation

Nurses General Nursing

Published

On August 5, 2008, My hospital is going to implement a new Customer Service master plan that will surely make every employee's life a living hell. Some of the new "Improvements" to this horrid design include: 24 Hour visitation, 24 hour room service, leatherbound menu's, DVD, WiFi internet, Massages (that we nurses are to do since we have soo much free time), flatscreen TV's, Starbucks coffee carts, Quiet time/Do Not Disturb time, Valet parking, and sleeper cots in the rooms. The last one I detest the most. Our room are VERY crowded (some with 3 beds) and the last thing we need is to break our backs trying to maneuver around a family member. Needless to say, I am very very anxious about all these changes. Now we will have administration barking at us for politely asking family members to step out of the room while we provide pericare. With all these new changes about to occur, somethings will remain the same - for example our old vital signs machines and telemetry equipment from 1980.

On August 5, 2008, My hospital is going to implement a new Customer Service master plan that will surely make every employee's life a living hell. Some of the new "Improvements" to this horrid design include: 24 Hour visitation, 24 hour room service, leatherbound menu's, DVD, WiFi internet, Massages (that we nurses are to do since we have soo much free time), flatscreen TV's, Starbucks coffee carts, Quiet time/Do Not Disturb time, Valet parking, and sleeper cots in the rooms. The last one I detest the most. Our room are VERY crowded (some with 3 beds) and the last thing we need is to break our backs trying to maneuver around a family member. Needless to say, I am very very anxious about all these changes. Now we will have administration barking at us for politely asking family members to step out of the room while we provide pericare. With all these new changes about to occur, somethings will remain the same - for example our old vital signs machines and telemetry equipment from 1980.

It may just be my perspective, but your master plan sounds like it would also make the patient's life a living hell. After I was released from the ICU for a bad GI bleed, I eventually asked myself what would have made this a less stressful experience. My answers:

Pen and Notepad

Complete medical records

Detailed description of medical procedures

Teach-back method of informed consent

I do not see patient education addressed in your master plan. I would have no objection to the massage, but not if the staff does not have time, and is not comfortable with it.

Also, I refused to watch television when I was in the ICU. As you might suspect from my recommendations, I am most comfortable in the college classroom environment. This may not make me a typical patient.

Specializes in Author/Business Coach.

Please quit now...this is the exact reason I'm going back to school to get out of bedside nursing. I am a NURSE...not a waitress,secretary,massage therapist, IT personell, maid, ect,ect,ect... I want to do my nursing job and be done with it without all the fluff. 24 hr visitation is h**l! I have to deal with families 10hrs a day on a Neuro Icu unit. You'd think after having brain surgery you wouldn't want to have all that stimulation, but nooooo...let the families stay and make you work extra hard trying to please them and take care of your 2 critically ill pts.

Specializes in Home Care, Hospice, OB.
i'd be looking for another job pronto. in the interim i would keep providing the same quality care you do as of now. .

:scrm:

get out and get out now!!!

this lunacy from corporate bean-counters makes me nauseated.:barf02:

the only analogy i can think of is an auto dealer offering gourmet coffee, free cable on a projection tv in the plush waiting room,free gas fill-ups, chair massages, and 24 hour service--but no guarentee at all that your car will run at all, or the brakes won't fail on a rainy night!:flmngmd::smackingf

Specializes in Med/Surg.

We have 24 hour visitation in all areas except for ICU and our acute rehab. We also have room service available from 0630-1830. We have wireless internet, dvd players in all rooms, dvds available at no charge and sofas that pull out to beds in all our rooms and showers. All our rooms have recliners as well and all our rooms are private. We are expected to jump for every pt or family members whim. There are signs posted in every room with the directors direct line printed on it in case the pts wants, needs or expecations are not met.

I wanted to be a nurse caring for pts not a waitress or gopher waiting on every whim you might actually think of.

I wonder if those in charge who decided on these changes actually spoke to the patients and families on what they would want.

Is raising expectations of patients/families higher than you can provide readily a good idea? Do you create more disappointed and dissatisfied people?

What would make a patient want to return to your hospital?

Is it faux-luxurious consumer goods, or is it something not easily bought or advertised.?

Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

It does sound like hell.

I'm glad the hospital I work at is too cheap to do any of that.

Specializes in med surg.

healthcare is a business and as a business it is all about customer service. Nurses will always see them as patients but administration sees customers, and views what we as nurses do as a quality control issue.

Many of the employees of our hospital were factory workers who because of the high unemployement in this country are now working in health care and have not yet realized that QM studies in hospitals are differenct from QM studies done on food or manufactured parts for autos etc. Not that one is more important then the ohter but different settings differecnt rules.

Specializes in ICU/CCU.

My hospital went with open visiting hours. :banghead::banghead: I work in a CCU where there is a potential for a lot of machinery in the room and where the patient acuity is high.(these rooms are very small- real estate is high in this place!) It became such a mess!! I did not agree with family bringing in food for themselves into the patients rooms (infection control issue)-they did not clean up after themeslves.:angryfire:angryfire Also a lot of time was wasted asking family members to leave the room to perform patient care!!(it would take 1-2 minutes for the family to get out!!) Forget about the old rule of having 2-3 people in the room at a time. Lastly, with the open visitation, families were there all hours of the day and night leaving little time for the patient to rest and recuperate..:rotfl: It didn't matter if I asked them leave so the patient can rest...it didn't matter to them. I look at it like this...it almost became like having children with absolutely No rules to abide to. I don't mind family visitation, but there has to be set rules to follow or everyone goes AMOCK!!:smiley_ab The hospital thought this idea would be great as far as patient/family satisfaction goes but it was just the opposite!! Adminstration had enough of all the complaints :argue:(nurse unable to update all 15 family members every 15 minutes or MDs unable to talk with family during rounds) so they decided to revisit visiting hours 12p-8p (our old visiting hours were 12-2p and 6p-8p). At least this is a start and things are getting back to normal. At least we can round without the intrusion of family members walking up to the team!! Good luck to you...take a lot of deep breaths and see what happens. Open visiting hours was a nightmare for us and hopefully things will work out for you.*wine

Specializes in floor to ICU.
We have 24 hour visitation in all areas except for ICU and our acute rehab. We also have room service available from 0630-1830. We have wireless internet, dvd players in all rooms, dvds available at no charge and sofas that pull out to beds in all our rooms and showers. All our rooms have recliners as well and all our rooms are private. We are expected to jump for every pt or family members whim. There are signs posted in every room with the directors direct line printed on it in case the pts wants, needs or expecations are not met.

I wanted to be a nurse caring for pts not a waitress or gopher waiting on every whim you might actually think of.

Sounds like you work at my hospital...ug.

Specializes in CCU & CTICU.
On August 5, 2008, My hospital is going to implement a new Customer Service master plan that will surely make every employee's life a living hell. Some of the new "Improvements" to this horrid design include: 24 Hour visitation, 24 hour room service, leatherbound menu's, DVD, WiFi internet, Massages (that we nurses are to do since we have soo much free time), flatscreen TV's, Starbucks coffee carts, Quiet time/Do Not Disturb time, Valet parking, and sleeper cots in the rooms. The last one I detest the most. Our room are VERY crowded (some with 3 beds) and the last thing we need is to break our backs trying to maneuver around a family member. Needless to say, I am very very anxious about all these changes. Now we will have administration barking at us for politely asking family members to step out of the room while we provide pericare. With all these new changes about to occur, somethings will remain the same - for example our old vital signs machines and telemetry equipment from 1980.

This post contains so much idiocy, it is horrifying. Starting with the words "Customer Service."

Leatherbound menus? Why on earth does someone in the hospital need that? Would a large print paper one where people can circle their choices be better?

Room service! What exactly are these people going to be getting? Cakes for the DKA pt? A magazine I could understand, but I doubt that's what they want.

Massages? Forget the pt, I want one! They didn't teach me those in school. I would've loved that class, no cutting that!

& Starbucks! Just what we need to induce more Afib! Expressos post-extubation after an AVR. As an added bonus, hyper-never sleeping family members! Brilliant Holmes. (I admit, they'll have to get past the lines of nurses and residents first...)

Quiet time/Do Not Disturb time? With 24hr visitation? ROFLMAO! I've got that at my hosp. It's a joke. People come in at 3 & 4am and they don't let the poor patient sleep. Then they wonder why the pt is upset, agitated and bonkers. I understand there are cirumstances where this is needed, but for the most part, it isn't, particularly in an ICU.

You just when you think they can't top the idiocy they already spew at us, something else falls from the crack of their backsides. & they wonder why we're leaving in droves.

On August 5, 2008, My hospital is going to implement a new Customer Service master plan that will surely make every employee's life a living hell. Some of the new "Improvements" to this horrid design include: 24 Hour visitation, 24 hour room service, leatherbound menu's, DVD, WiFi internet, Massages (that we nurses are to do since we have soo much free time), flatscreen TV's, Starbucks coffee carts, Quiet time/Do Not Disturb time, Valet parking, and sleeper cots in the rooms. The last one I detest the most. Our room are VERY crowded (some with 3 beds) and the last thing we need is to break our backs trying to maneuver around a family member. Needless to say, I am very very anxious about all these changes. Now we will have administration barking at us for politely asking family members to step out of the room while we provide pericare. With all these new changes about to occur, somethings will remain the same - for example our old vital signs machines and telemetry equipment from 1980.

i wish my appendix would burst so i can stay THERE!!!

Specializes in Telemetry, Med-Surg, ED, Psych.
i wish my appendix would burst so i can stay THERE!!!

You would not want to stay at my hospital - we are beyond ghetto with 3 beds per room and sharred bathrooms.

+ Add a Comment