I silently stood in the hall and watched as food trays were delivered through the “host/hostess” process at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa, a 978 bed hospital complex in San Antonio Texas. CHRISTUS is truly one of those exceptional hospitals, a Health Grades distinguished hospital 6 years in a row, a Magnet Hospital, and a top employer in the San Antonio area. The thing about CHRISTUS Santa Rosa is despite being a large hospital; it has a human scale feeling to it. And the staff reinforces this.
Before the hostess grabbed a lunch tray to deliver to the patient room, she checked precautions in each room, used the hand sanitation dispenser located outside of each room, and verified that the tray was the correct one for each patient. Like rhythmic clockwork, I watched the AIDET process in action: (A) acknowledge each patient by their name, (I) introduce themselves, (D) duration – let patients know who long you will be in the room, (E) explain step by step what will happen, and ask the patient if they had any questions, and (T) thank the patient. The hostess asked if there were anything else that the patient needed as they had the time to help them, and then thank the patient for their time, or followed by an “it’s my pleasure” in response to a patient thanking the hostess. And the process began anew for the next patient in the next room.
The hostess did not look harried, although she had trays to deliver. Each patient was made to feel as if they were the most important person in the hospital. Hand washing served to minimize infections; AIDET served to improve satisfaction; being part of something bigger lowered employee turnover rates every year in the past three. It’s not surprising that CHRISTUS Santa Rosa is the market leader in acute hospital in patient satisfaction in its area, and continues to grow its patient base.
How does your hospital’s support staff engage patients? Have you measured its impact?
