Plane Tree Model

Think "Welcome to Club Med." You're about to become a customer service professional rather than a healthcare professional. All whims and demands of patients and family are to be met with cheerful, smiling faces and a "Can I fluff your pillow with that?" Everything will be done at the patient's request (or family) and the routine you thought you had down pat is about to go out the windows with the lovely new window treatments. Oh, and no, you won't get any additional staffing to help out with the pillow fluffing and the "Get me a ginger ale, will ya?" Turning hospitals into resorts, ugh. Great idea in theory but just doesn't work in practice. But I'm a bit disillusioned with how I've seen it go down, hope your experience is better.

I work at a Planetree facility and it isn't at all like KateRN1 says...sounds like she had a poor experience with this.

It's mostly about making sure patients are safe and aren't overwhelmed by their healthcare experience. We have our patients establish Care Partners to be involved in their healthcare discussions with staff. We encourage our patients to be engaged in their healthcare experience.

What healthcare facility doesn't give in to the of patients for a ginger ale? I mean, really! Our kitchen is staffed 24/7 and besides certain patients who get scheduled meals, our patients order food when they want it and it's delivered to their room. Nursing isn't really involved in food service in any way. If the request is beyond ice water, we don't have it on the floor - call the kitchen! Patient satisfaction with this is quite high.

Staffing where I work is great - ratios are fine. We have techs and CNAs, and even patient sitters to watch the ones who are fall risks or some type of danger to themselves (trying to pull out tubes/lines).

Planetree also encourages staff development, so every now and then we do these team building workshops which are kinda cheesy, but to be honest, I feel that throughout my hospital, staff is happy and we work well together. We even have massage chairs in our staff lounge as a result of monies set aside for staff development for Planetree.

Let's face it, hospitals seek return business and patients aren't going to remember their visit because you saved their life...they're going to remember if they got their orange juice and had enough pillows. Do I want my hospital to be profitable? Sure do! Employees this year got holiday bonuses, and I'd sure like that to continue.

I don't understand why so many nurses seem so discouraged by a need to be pleasant to our patients.

I don't understand why so many nurses seem so discouraged by a need to be pleasant to our patients.

The discouragement doesn't come from being pleasant to our patients, it comes from management giving a higher priority to customer service pleasantries over the basics, such as staffing and initiatives to improve patient HEALTH outcomes(which is the reason patients are there in the first place).

For example, my planetree hospital decided to cut funding for ACLS classes, while at the same time mandated that cheesy staff retreat. Kind of backwards in my opinion...

I could understand that if the upper management gave higher priority to customer service than healthcare, in a hospital setting, that it could be frustrating.

That hasn't been my experience, and my current facility has been great at providing resources and education to it's staff. I wouldn't work anywhere else in town!

The problem occurs when people adopt "Planetree" and yet do not provide the staff support to permit it.

You advertise the menu and then have 1 dietary aide with the attitude of a pitbull to man the phone to take the food orders for 400 beds. And your pt, who is elderly has been dialing for 30 minutes straight with no answer.

It is when management institutes "Planetree", advertises it to kingdom come, yet cuts staff from 2 RNs for 12-16 patients and a tech per 12-16 patients, to an RN per 12 and a tech per 20.

It is when they force you into all those insipid inspirational inservices, and yet refuse to pay for an inservice on the new accucheck machine, cut ACLS classes.

(so help me, if I have to watch that annoying "geese fly in formation, taking turns to lead, and the wing lift from one helps lift the other - and if one stays behind, another stays with it until it can catch up....video one more time, I may run screaming amok)

Recently one such facility, decided that the onco floor would take gyn overflow....which became, preterm labor pts, hyperemesis gravida, intrauterine demise pts, etc. WITH VIRTUALLY NO TRAINING for caring for those pts, yet talks about its pt centered "PlaneTree" modeled care to provide the best for their pts. When staff asked about training to provide excellent "pt centered care", they were told that there was no money for it.

In too many places, "Planetree" is an advertising hook with nothing actually "pt centered" to back it up with.

I have to agree with caroladybelle... I will not say more as I am known by administration to be on this board...

I can certainly understand why nurses would get upset at being required to provide the pleasantries of customer service if they are already seriously understaffed and have trouble providing required healthcare. However, if staffing is adequate, as a former patient in one hospital where I was treated like dirt and another where everyone was really nice, yes, if I have to have surgery again I'll choose the hospital where I didn't leave early (and still in major pain) just because of how I was treated.

I was on one of the Planetree committees at a local hospital. They had great intentions and did make some good, solid, well-reasoned changes in policy. It was very difficult and slow to get anything changed. So, although the intention was there, it INITIALLY amounted to meeting after meeting after meeting without apparent progress.

Very little that was done at our hospital was just about customer service. It was more about offering a variety of options including alternative and complementary care such as massage therapy and acupuncture. There were also changes in the environment to create a more healing environment. Patients have been very pleased and it hasn't really been more work for nurses on the floor in my experience. I do understand that many people perceive it as simply being about advertising. At some facilities, I'm sure it is.

Having worked at a Planetree facility in the past I wouldn't do it again. I give great "service" to me my patients without a philosophy directing me how! I take exception with the power given to pharmacists to determine the timing of medication administration in order to not inconvenience the patient. I disagree with the concept of room service. Patients are in the hospital to get well. If they want a rest go to a hotel and order room service. We were required to have ACLS, PALS, TNCC, and NRP. We did not cover the ED but our administration felt it looked "good on paper". LPNs were referred to as non-nursing staff. I understand and do agree that patients need to actively be involved in their health care. Their understanding and participation makes my job easier and more rewarding. I don't need Planetree dictacting my practice in order to provide optimum care.

"LPNs were referred to as non-nursing staff" Just what part of all this nonsence do nurses really need. I think we were all taught in school how to take care of patients, and give them the best care possible. Sounds to me like this is just another bunch of hokey that some brainiac thought up to make money for themselves. Really, explain to me , because according to this "plane tree", I'm not a nurse, how any of this is any kind of new thought or practice? It is because of "ideas" like this that people disrespect LPN's. I am a nurse, I'm a great nurse. I give my patients my all, always, and give them the best!

I can only speak for the Panetree facility I worked at. One LPN (there were 4 total) who was an excellent NURSE with a perfect 17 year attendance, asked when she could expect an opportunity to go to the day shift and managements' response was "never, you are qualified to handle the floor when my nurses need to be off the unit". Both our interpretations were the same. We could be wrong.