Hospitals are secretly competing for your business!

That's right, hospitals are competing all across the country for your business, for you to tell your family and friends that THIS is the place to go. Not that other hospital, oh no!

WIG is the name, Wildly Important Goals.

They hold meetings with the staff at least twice a week, reminding them that the customer is always right. Welcome to the next edition of Hotel California, where you check in, but now check out really happy! The customer, the family, visitors, they are all always right.

Wildly Important Goals are all the rage in hospitals that reach for scores based on customer satisfaction, on a weekly basis. Even on a daily basis patients are asked if they have been properly introduced to their nurses, informed of their treatment plan, informed of their diets, their activity levels, introduced to their patient care techs, had their medications explained to them, their illness properly explained, etc. Every day.

These scores are tallied on a weekly basis, and the staff is then told if the scores are slipping they must do more introducing, more informing, even if you know you did it and the patient had tons of pain medication and forgot, you must do it more, till they remember!

The wildly important goals are intended to improve customer satisfaction, to assure that you spread the good word about your hospital visit, even though it is known that bad word spreads faster than good, they are attempting to change that.

Who is the customer?
1. the patient
2. the doctors (most doctors are not employed by the hospitals anymore, but contract employees)
3. the family/visitors
4. outside vendors (bedside commodes, walkers, back braces, oxygen, etc)

Want some ice cream from the cafeteria? No problem! Lotion rubbed on your back? Sure! Blankets and pillows for 4 peope in the waiting room? Be right there! Someone wants to spend the night? No problem! Guest tray? Right away! All service, all the time, with all smiles.

Here is an example of using WIG in a hospital:

blog.torontobarmitzvah.com...

So what happens when someone falls through the cracks, or just has the kind of temparement that nothing makes them happy? Thats when they do Service Recovery!

1. free parking for family/visitors
2. box of candy
3. flowers

and if it is really bad and you are really, really angry,

4. gift basket, flowers, box of candy, and free parking, sometimes even free movie tickets!

www.refresher.com...!obsession3.html


So what is the real purpose behind this? Competition for your dollars.

www.pressganey.com...

After your visit, you will most likely get a questionaire in the mail asking about your visit. If you fill this out and mail it back, you are one of the few. But, one of the few that counts in the Press Ganey Scores that help to rate the hospitals. That's where the real meat of the matter lies, because people that choose to have elective surgeries do research facilities in their area and tend to choose based on customer satisfaction.

If you have not been in a hospital in a while, go visit someone you know that has fallen ill. You will probably be shocked at the difference in even just the past 5 years. 10 years is shocking.

I find that hard to believe after I had a cast put on for $4000 just for a hand to elbow.

They sure have a funny way of showing it.

$4000 is a bit ridiculous for a small infraction of an arm.

Hate to see what a car accident bill is.

Sure won't be getting my business anytime soon. I would rather die before I go back.

I even took the cast off myself.

Probably would of costed $6000 just to take the thing off.

Hospitals compete for business where I live in Pennsylvania, not exactly secretly either.

There are billboards along the highways advertising their services, whether for their cardiac services or physical therapy programs. Some of the billboards are the expensive types that change the images and message every 30 seconds.

Hospitals are big business. The largest employer in the county that I reside in is one of the hospitals.

Now the federal government has passed a law that requires citizens to buy insurance to pay for the services of these businesses. The law provides for a penalty if you do not purchase insurance. Make no mistake, it is a penalty, not a tax.

reply to post by butcherguy


Well, the part I meant secretly about was incorporating the use of WIG and other corporate ideals to improve customer satisfaction.

They bring outside consultants to train the management, and the management trains the staff, but it does seem largely hush hush. Most of the time, Service Recovery is rolled out, it is done in a quiet manner, so as to not draw attention to it. If one person sees someone getting free parking, then they want it too, and so on.

I was actually suprised to see the WIG pictures in the link I posted in the OP, because in my hospital, it is a quiet thing. We kind of don't want the customers to know we are bending over backwards to please them. Kind of ironic, in a sense. Kind of like, don't look now, but here's a treat!

The good thing is, the Press Ganey scores the whole hospital, so when we get the reports back, and someone really messed up with a patient in admissions, we know it. It kind of pushes everyone to work together as a team, which can only have good outcomes for everyone.

It's really embarrassing when you know who the patient was by what they wrote (they don't reveal the names to us) and they tell about how something was horrible that happened. It makes people have to be accountable, which again, can only be a good thing in the end.

Seen the same thing though, lots of TV commercials, billboards, etc., but also a lot of behind the scenes things I don't think a lot of people know about, too, which is why I wrote the OP!

Originally posted by Manhater

I find that hard to believe after I had a cast put on for $4000 just for a hand to elbow.

They sure have a funny way of showing it.

$4000 is a bit ridiculous for a small infraction of an arm.

Hate to see what a car accident bill is.

Sure won't be getting my business anytime soon. I would rather die before I go back.

I even took the cast off myself.

Probably would of costed $6000 just to take the thing off.

edit on 3-7-2012 by Manhater because: (no reason given)

Well, I had back surgery 2 years ago and the bill was $79,000. But, since I have insurance, my out of pocket was $400.00.

I was there less that 24 hours.

My ER visits are $200.00 copay.

Insurance is a nice thing.

Would have only cost me $45.00 to get the cast removed at the orthopedics.

Well worth the $118.00 a month for me and my husband.

reply to post by Libertygal


You know, I work. I pay my bills. I still have 0 insurance.

Lucky you.

I had back surgery too. My dad has to pay for it though.

Amazes me how you people get away with it.

And I sit here paying for it.

And before you say it,

I applied for medicaid and got denied.

reply to post by Libertygal

Yes, I have seen the results of the WIG meetings. Thanks for bringing it to light here.
It is a product that they're selling, just like any other commercial endeavor. They have a good point, I wouldn't go back to a hospital that treated me like crap or failed somehow in giving me good service.

I think that Obamacare is the biggest bunch of fascism to come down the road yet. The feds forcing citizens to buy a commercial product, and the companies that benefit were consulting on the bill.

reply to post by Manhater


I guess I went through a period of time where the jobs I got didn't even offer insurance because they only hired me part time, or they didn't have enough employees by law to be forced to offer it. I was young then, and it was before my children were born. I didn't have a house payment, or anyone to answer to.

But, I had children and bought a house and a car.

I changed my directives, and chose a field that offered me both job security and the benefits that I wanted. I took a cut in pay, started way down from where I came from in pay. In fact, it took me almost 10 years to get back to the take home pay I used to have.

However, the benefits package I have far outweighs the perceived loss of income. To the company, I am valued at double what my past bring home pay was. The matched donations to my 401 along with the benefits package makes me a highly valued employee. The actual take home pay is only a part of it. I also have a certain amount of free life insurance.

I imagine if I tried to set out again to find a new job, in another field, I would again have to start out at the low end and once again work my way up, but these were the choices I made for me and my family. You do what you have to do. I needed job security and insurance, a 401, and retirement plan, life insurance, accident and long and short term disability, so I chose the path I did.

It paid off for me in the long run, though I admittedly went without things I may have wanted, I feel much more secure than any material things would have made me feel anyway.

We all choose the path we take in life, and if we take one we don't like, it is only up to us to change it.

Yes, I have worked in hospitals for a long time and we are trained to treat patients and families like customers. What's sad is the thousands and thousands of dollars they put into these customer service classes..that are not going to make much of a difference in how employees behave. And don't get me started on how ridiculous the cost of healthcare is....