A few years ago, a family member of one of our inpatients
published a blog about their experience at one of our locations and their
negative perceptions of Children’s Specialized Hospital.
People who had come across the post via social media were
commenting on the post and sharing it; some were responding sympathetically
while others were making assumptions about our hospital and the services we
provide.
After discussing a plan of action with a team of folks, I
posted a comment on their blog post apologizing for their negative experience
and offering to make myself immediately available to resolve any of their
concerns.
In a conversation with the family, they provided us with
some suggestions on what we could improve upon to avoid this situation in the
future, one of which was more training around communication.
When I went to find the blog post it had been deleted, but
you can imagine the impact it had on those who provided care to this child and
their family. We continued to provide amazing care to the child and worked
diligently to ensure our hurt was not placed on the child in any way. We had an
obligation to the child to do our best, as we always do.
Fast forward 7 years, I receive an e-mail from Pat O’Hanlon,
of our Family Faculty, to share that she saw the family in New Brunswick for an
outpatient session. While the child was being seen, Mom was raving about
how wonderful the care is that she is receiving. You can imagine the excitement
in Pat’s e-mail when she told me this. It was such a positive conversation
coming from a family that had previously had such a negative experience.
We listened to the suggestions for improvement that all our
families shared with us and incorporated them into our Service Excellence
Training, a philosophy to engage and empower every staff member to consistently
deliver an exceptional experience with every interaction.
Two of our Service Excellence Standards are, “I will follow
through to make sure that questions and concerns are addressed and results are
communicated” and “I resolve concerns respectfully and directly with the person
involved.”
By listening to the concerns from this family and addressing
them we were able to provide continued care for the child, build a relationship
with the patient and the family, and change their perception of Children’s
Specialized.
This example is just one of the many that make us different.
Great work to all who was involved.
