Well - Spring 2011 - (Page 7)

putting the care in health care reCeNtly, my NewBorN soN was admit- My StoRy excellent customer service at a hospital? yes. By Joshua P. Cohen ted to N.C. Children’s Hospital for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and bronchiolitis. Thankfully, we brought him home healthy after a six-night stay. We also brought home an overwhelmingly positive view of our experiences with everyone encountered at N.C. Children’s Hospital. Specifically, we appreciated the excellent customer service. A focus on customer service? At a hospital? We were surprised, too. ‘Anything Else I Can Do?’ You would think a hospital wouldn’t need to have good customer service. After all, most hospitals don’t face significant competition for some of their specialized services. And the very nature of a hospital means that there are many stressful, rushed situations that are not conducive to the finer points of customer service. But excellent customer service is exactly what we received. It was simple as this: Every single person on the sixth floor of N.C. Children’s Hospital, from our nurses to the doctors to the housekeeping staff, was courteous and friendly, and asked us, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” As a businessperson, I am fascinated by how such a simple question could be so ingrained in all of the people at the hospital—especially given their many disparate roles—so that it was asked, without fail, every time someone left our room. If it hadn’t been so genuine, it would have been spooky. And it even carried over after we were discharged when a nurse followed up with us to see how our son was doing the day after we got home. first-rate customer service keeps Joshua P. Cohen coming back to UNC Health Care. living Out the Mission The people at UNC Health Care have internalized their mission of Leading. Teaching. Caring. With another world-class hospital 10 miles down the road, perhaps UNC thinks they need to compete on customer service. There’s probably not that much difference in the facilities and services that are available. It’s easy to provide the high-tech items that patients and families desire. It’s harder to provide the high-touch items. Even if UNC Health Care wasn’t in a competitive environment, the way UNC treats its customers is the right thing to do. It makes families who are already tense and scared feel welcomed and cared for. Whether this successful strategy is due to good management of employees, good identification and selection of employees that fit with their mission, or both, it’s clear that UNC’s strategy is working because my wife and I chose UNC for our son’s care for this infection precisely because of the positive experiences we had there during the births of our two children. Most of the time, missions are created and quickly forgotten. But UNC shows consistency between its mission and its actions. And all of its patients benefit. Joshua P. Cohen (UNC class of 1999) lives in durham with wife sarah (UNC Class of 2000), daughter ella, and son dashiell. He manages business development for transloc, a tech start-up in raleigh. despite attending duke for graduate school, Josh and his family are tar Heel fans. this account was adapted from a post on Josh’s blog at www. joshuapcohen.com. www.unchealthcare.org 7 http://www.joshuapcohen.com http://www.joshuapcohen.com http://www.unchealthcare.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Well - Spring 2011

Well - Spring 2011
Contents
UNC Health Care News
Community
Little Patients Require Special Care
2010 Community Benefit Summary
My Story
Lessons Learned
Nutrition
Calendar

Well - Spring 2011