Customer Service... rant

[All_Smiles_RN]

Is anyone else over this whole customer service initiative? I'm sick of hearing about patient satisfaction scores and surveys. I do not have customers, I have PATIENTS I am caring for. I became a nurse to help people when health has them down and to teach them ways to hopefully prevent future occurences from happening.

I am incredibly nice to all of my patients. I do everything that I can for them. At times, I can't do everything as soon as they'd like. Someone wants some jello for instance the other night on my first rounds. I told her I'd bring her some when I came back with her meds. But first I went and did a quick check on my other patients (did not see any techs during my rounds to ask for jello). Previous pt calls the desk complaining that I haven't brought her jello yet. It had only been 15 minutes and I was enroute to her room when she called the desk again! It makes me wonder if things like this are what bring our scores down.

Another thing I wonder about is transfers. Do you really think they remember which nurses came from which floors when they rate our unit? What about the ones pissed off about the wait in the ER? Does that taint their whole visit and cause bad reviews? Are they calling alert and oriented patients??? How many patients are they actually calling? We all know how statistics can be worded to read however you would like them to be read.

I'm over it, can you tell? Anyone else want to vent with me?

[anne74]

I agree. You can't use a business model in a healthcare setting. I work in the PACU, and I get so irritated with people who want to know EXACTLY when their family member will be ready to go home. I don't have a crystal ball telling me when their O2 sats will reach above 90%, or when their nausea will pass. But people are so used to instant answers and "the customer is always right" philosophy, they just don't get it.

You take your car in - they can tell you when it will be fixed. This is a human body - not a car - so don't expect the same results!

And these administrators who don't work on the front lines but institute these policies are perpetuating this way of thought. Annoying and unfair!

[RN4PatientCare]

Totally with you on this!

I encourage people to order snacks like this from the kitchen since we have room service like dining. People can just pick up the phone and call in an order any time between 0700 - 1900.

I have to think back to the prioritization assignments in nursing school...where would the jello come in?

[rpbear]

At my last hospital we had a bonus attached to our pt. sat. score, if we could keep it above a certain percent for the quarter, we got a $100 bonus. I don't think the money changed anything that any of us did with our pts, we were still as kind and compassionate as we were before the money. We were just more aware of the score.

I think the customer service model has it's place, but not in healthcare, we are there to care for thier helath needs, not to make sure the pillows are fluffy, and the jello is fresh! If they leave healthier than when they arrived, we have done our jobs, jello or no jello.