Raising the bar on service

Service is key

Many of us are thinking about the opportunities that could open up for Kaiser Permanente with health care reform. Experts talk about Kaiser Permanente as one of the models that could be the “gold standard” of how to provide health care in the country. While the specifics of health care reform are still being defined, it is clear that many people who currently do not have health insurance will have access to coverage. This opens up a great opportunity for Kaiser Permanente to compete for these new members.

It’s all about quality, affordability and service

We all should be able to answer the question of why this population of people would choose Kaiser Permanente over other options. We have some of the highest quality scores

of any provider in the nation. We offer affordable care. We also have a great work environment where we take care of our employees.  These are three of the points on the Value Compass.  

The fourth point on the Compass is service. This is an area in which we can do much better. We need to take care of the patients in a way that lets them know how much we care. As long as we keep patient needs at the center of what we do, providing good service will be second nature. This is really not so difficult if we think about how we would want our family members to be treated when they come in for care.  

Give feedback

Every patient we see is important and deserves a good experience. That means continuing to set the bar higher in each of our work units to demonstrate this to our members. If we create a safe working environment, giving each other constructive feedback becomes part of all our efforts to improve. But if we avoid dealing with areas that are uncomfortable, then questionable behavior will likely continue. We’ve heard from a number of people that they had no idea that a member might object to certain behavior until they got feedback from their peers.  Constructive advice from peers creates a culture of learning on how to do things better. The only way to improve is to learn from our mistakes.  

Kaiser Permanente’s most important assets are the people who care for patients every day. Let’s show the world how good we can be. The first step is helping each other become better caregivers.