Hospitals gear up to promote customer satisfaction
Hospitals gear up to promote customer satisfaction
Debbie A. Lubis, Contributor, Jakarta
Patients want to be satisfied with the quality of care they
receive from a hospital. Their interactions with staff members at
the hospital will determine whether they will choose the same
hospital again or recommend it to others. Therefore, hospitals do
their best to tailor their services to the needs of patients as
customers.
Dr. Jusuf Kristianto, a health care quality improvement
consultant, said hospitals could improve their services if they
standardized medical workers' competence and standardized
operating procedures in handling patients.
"Malpractice happens because of the failure to comply with the
rules and regulations. Doctors and nurses cannot jump to the
physical examination stage without doing the preliminary stages."
Jusuf, who is also a lecturer in the postgraduate program at
the School of Public Health at the University of Indonesia, said
customer satisfaction was included on the curriculum at school
for nurses and midwives.
He said there were five dimensions that must receive proper
attention from hospitals: the hospitals' physical appearance, the
hospitals' competence, career development of medical workers,
faith and empathy.
Jusuf has monitored customer satisfaction at three big
hospitals in Jakarta. One has achieved 96 percent customer
satisfaction, while on average hospitals in big cities in
Indonesia are still at the level of 75 percent.
"Hospitals are part of the service industry, which is related
or has direct contact with customers. Although the doctors are
very smart, if they cannot maintain service quality the patients
will run away."
Service quality will help hospitals achieve high efficiency
and efficacy, especially in encouraging word-of-mouth promotion.
"Hospitals now realize it is not just the patients who need
them. Because without patients, hospitals would die financially
and academically," said Samsuridjal Djauzi, a professor at the
School of Medicine at the University of Indonesia and the
president director of the Dharmais National Cancer Hospital.
Several hospitals in Indonesia now provide dormitories for
patients' families and use banks for their billing
administration. Patients in the waiting room at Dharmais are
entitled to receive free drinks and snacks. The hospital also
provides newspapers, a shoe-polish service and an Internet
center. There is also a pick-up service to and from the airport
for patients from other regions in Indonesia and from abroad. It
also provides social workers to accompany patients who need
company during their stay.
Dr. Pramadhya Bachtiar, a medical services expert at PT
Pertamina Bina Medika Pertamedika, said doctors and other medical
workers needed to give time to patients to communicate their
problems.
"Hospital staff sometimes consider themselves as higher than
the patients. Patients are also human beings. A doctor, for
example, cannot receive five patients at the same time in one
room because there is no privacy and confidentiality for them to
share their problems."
Proper attention should also be given to the patients who have
returned home after being hospitalized. Pramadhya said that
hospitals could send health care workers to visit such patients
and try to help the family provide appropriate home care.
"We need to provide holistic, humanized and individual
treatment for patients. A smile can be a good start."
Sufficient information should also be given to patients.
According to Hasbullah Thabrany, a professor at the School of
Public Health at the University of Indonesia, patients have the
right to know about their illness, its risks, alternative
treatments and side effects.
Pharmacists should also be helpful by making sure that
patients receive sufficient information about the drugs
prescribed by doctors.
Hasbullah emphasized the need for giving empathy to patients.
"Caring requires more than just prescribing medicine. Through
body language and soothing words, doctors can help alleviate the
patients' pain."