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A Happy Workplace
Satisfied employees make for satisfied patients.
By Victor Simoneaux, BS,(R)(T)
Posted on:
February 7, 2012
When trying to determine a place to receive a health care service such as lab work or X-rays, do you choose a place based on the outward appearance of the building? Or do you choose a place with great customer service? While a newer building may have the most up-to-date equipment, if the staff is not friendly, why would you want to go back?
Gone are the days when patients always followed the doctor's advice on what specialist to see or where to get a procedure. Now, more people are online, researching medical conditions, treatment options, physician reviews--making our own decisions. Patients are also using social media outlets and blogs to share their experiences both good and bad. There's an old adage that you tell three or four people about your good experiences, but blab to 10 or 12 people about a bad experience. Well if a patient's experience is posted to a blog, Twitter or Facebook, it can be seen by hundreds! Remember that an easy way to keep patients happy is making sure that staff members are content and satisfied with their jobs.
Your employees have to be pleased in their work environment to project a positive attitude to patients. Job satisfaction is an essential part of ensuring high quality care; an unhappy employee may give poor quality and less efficient care. In truth, job satisfaction is actually a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction. Intrinsic job satisfaction is defined by staff members who consider only the kind of work they do and the tasks that make up the job, while extrinsic job satisfaction involves conditions of the work such as pay, coworker relationships, management style and communication. There needs to be a balance of both types of satisfaction for positive staff morale. The staff needs to feel a part of the facility; they need to feel that what they do is important not only to the patient but also to the administration and their fellow colleagues.
Another motivating factor is the collegiality of the staff. A well-rounded group will use the strengths of some to balance the weaknesses of others. The key is respect for all team members. We must remember that we work with human beings. We should spend less time complaining about the weakness of our coworkers and more time appreciating the positive things they offer us and our workplace.
 Let's face it: we sometimes bring personal problems to work with us. As members of the team family, we should help others and support them when they're down. We don't want their bad days to spread to the patients or us. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Keep this in mind throughout daily interactions. Treat the cleaning crew with the same kind, friendly demeanor as you would the CEO. Who knows if that student shadowing you this month will turn out to be a manager at another facility you want to work for some day!
That positive happy feeling in your workplace carries over in to how we interact with our patients. No one wants to be treated as a number; call everyone by name. In health care, we often have intimate contact with our patients. We ask all kind of personal questions about their lives and habits. We are also often engaged in some sort of physical contact with the patient. It's very important that we do all we can to make them feel comfortable so that we can gather as much pertinent information as possible and to assure them that we'll provide the best possible care. This is where the staff's general attitude can make or break your facility.
Everyone likes to be greeted by a smiling face. It sounds corny, but you'd be surprised how far a big smile will take you into the realm of positive outlooks-both for first-time and repeat patients. Also remember that our current patients are a valuable form of advertisement for our facility. Poor customer service can hurt your patient census just as a positive staff can and will lead to happy patients!
R. Victor Simoneaux, BSRT, RT(R)(T), Chief Radiation Therapist at Indiana University Health Proton Therapy Center in Bloomington, Ind.
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