More Than Answering a Call

Susan, the daughter of a grateful patient, called to speak with a manager about Sierra N Jones, Patient Access representative.

Susan called to compliment and share her appreciation to Sierra. Susan said that Sierra treated her mother with compassion and empathy. Sierra took the time to explain information about her mother’s testing. She went further by confirming insurance and pricing at each Parrish Healthcare facility.

Susan continued to say that Sierra was very patient with her mother. She said Sierra’s kind and cheerful voice helped her mother through a very stressful time. “It’s comforting to know that Parrish has such a compassionate team and I just had to share the experience,” said Susan

Brittany Solomon, Patient Access manager, describes the team as the face of the organization. Patient Access Care Partners are one of the first encounters patients and visitors have with us, whether in person or on the phone. On average, the team engages with more than 10,000 patients each week. That’s more 10,000 opportunities to provide healing experiences per week and more than 520,000 healing experiences per year!
Recently, the team completed AIDET® customer service training instructed by Patient Experience Manager, Carlos Diaz, and Professional Development Generalist, Alexis Woodring.

AIDET® is a communication framework for healthcare professionals to communicate with patients and each other in a way that decreases patient anxiety, increases patient compliance, and improves clinical outcomes, according to nationally renowned healthcare consultants, the Studer Group. The acronym AIDET® stands for five communication behaviors: Acknowledge, Introduce, Duration, Explanation, and Thank You.

“The training has been essential to ensure we are delivering excellent customer service at all times, with all patient interactions, as well as, with our internal customers. It’s helping us further our mission Healing Experiences for Everyone All the Time®, Brittany said. “Carlos and Alex did a great job leading the training.”

Not only did Sierra pass her service training, but, as this story demonstrates, she also passed “The Mother Test.” According to Erie Chapman, author of the book Radical Loving Care, “In a healing hospital, every person is, in some way, responsible for patient care…each of us should treat every person we encounter as we’d want our mother to be treated.”