FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital - Rockingham, NC
Compass Award Winner: Inpatient Services 100 - 299 Beds
The statement that it was not just one specific thing but all the little things combined is the most accurate way to describe FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital’s transition to excellent customer satisfaction and Press Ganey scores in the 99th percentile for the Inpatient and Emergency Departments. The main objective through the entire process was for the hospital’s entire administration and staff to understand that customer satisfaction was the number one goal for everyone. This was a direct parallel to FirstHealth’s core purpose of caring for people and the 2020 Vision—Working Together, First In Quality, First in Health. Without the buy-in of all departments, success could not have been achieved.
The focus on excellent customer satisfaction began in early 2004 with several new initiatives and was invigorated in January 2005 with a new COO/CNO who got behind the initiative and made the entire staff believe in the reality. Early actions emphasized the importance of customer satisfaction and gave the staff the tools to reach the goal. The initiatives included the implementation of management rounds, tracking of complaints concurrently to find areas for improvement, and monthly “Customer Heroes.” Additional initiatives were then added in 2005 to energize the initiatives and further denote the importance. These actions included monthly customer service agenda items forthe Patient Care Management Committee, listening to the staff and personally acknowledging acts of excellent customer service, a Customer Hero of the Year for the employee most mentioned on surveys, quarterly prize drawings for names mentioned in surveys, review of Press Ganey scores at employee town hall meetings, empowering the staff to enact service recovery through complimentary meal tickets, staff responsibility for customer satisfaction through the annual performance evaluation, and physician involvement in recognition activities. Last but not least was employee involvement in reviewing Press Ganey scores and how the scores translated into daily care practices. It was amazing to see the pride that employees had as Press Ganey scores were posted on their units each quarter, each showing improvements. Everyone from housekeeping to nursing supervisors became involved in the effort. Even employees who previously were not interested in customer satisfaction began making suggestions on things that could be done to improve the patient experience. This pride was recognized and championed with employee celebrations as each Press Ganey milestone was achieved.All of these small changes in the work environment led FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital to improve inpatient satisfaction from the 72nd percentile (3/1/2004-5/31/2004) to the 99th percentile (3/1/2006-5/31/2006) and to improve ED satisfaction from the 63rd percentile (5/1/2004-7/31/2004) to the 99th percentile (4/1/2006-6/30/2006).