Rising to the occasion: A new take on service

Fontana pharmacy team

It was on one of our seven-and-a-half hour flights to Hawaii that we encountered a flight attendant who seemed to be suffering from either a lack of sleep, overwork or just the frustration and stress of a job whose fortunes have declined badly over the past 10 years. About three hours into the flight, and after feeling somewhat ignored, we politely asked her for a bag of peanuts. “Yeah, if you want to pay for them!” she snapped. She quickly turned her back on us, walked to the front, and proceeded to chat with a co-worker. At this point, we checked our watches and actually felt pretty good knowing we had only four-and-a-half hours to go. As we deplaned, the attendant was waiting by the door. She greeted us without smiling and uttered not so much as a word of thanks.

Last summer, a flight on another airline was scheduled to depart at 7:00 p.m. It was on a Friday night and people were anxious to get home for the weekend. Due to inclement weather back east, the plane didn’t take off until well after 10:00 p.m. By the time we all boarded and the door finally shut, every person on that plane was in a foul mood. You could feel it. As we started to taxi, a senior-level flight attendant made the following announcement:

“If there is a need for oxygen, a mask will fall from the bin above you. If you have a child, place your mask on first, then place a mask over the child’s nose and mouth. If you have more than one child, we’ll leave it up to you to decide which one has the most potential.”

The entire plane erupted in laughter.

The foul mood was gone in an instant. Anyone thinking about filing a complaint almost certainly no longer felt the need. In Kaiser-speak, this is what is known as “service recovery.”

Gary Kelly, chairman, CEO and president of Southwest Airlines, recently wrote an article entitled The Happiest Place to Work. He was writing about his organization being recognized as a “best place to work.” He explained that in a recent companywide survey, employees of Southwest rated their company as “most favorable” on items related to pride and commitment to the organization, retention of top talent and leaders’ communication of decisions, compared to norms in the industry. He described dedicated teams working to “create action plans to make Southwest an even happier place. And because happy employees provide great customer service…our customers benefit.” Can you guess which airline the second story took place on?

What does all of this have to do with Kaiser Permanente? A lot. Currently, we have a great deal of work to make service a top priority. Think it can’t be done? Hundreds of unit -based teams in all eight Kaiser Permanente regions are focusing much of their work on how to improve service to their patients. At Fontana and Ontario medical centers, UBTs have raised their service and quality scores from the 15^th percentile three years ago, to over the 70^th percentile today. Georgina Garcia, COO of both centers, says that only through unit-based teams was this possible. Once teams understand the link between the important work that they perform every day and how it affects every other department in their facility, the level of engagement automatically increases. That’s when we begin to see fantastic results by those who know the work best and know what their patients need and want.

Hopefully, the two stories illustrate, from a customer’s point of view, the importance of treating customers with the respect and dignity they deserve. Especially in health care; where people’s overall health and sometimes their very lives, are at risk. When one of our customers (members/patients) asks you for that “bag of peanuts,” what will your response be?