For Your Well Being 
Barbara Christenson, Publisher
The Speak Well Being Group
mailto:barbara@speakwellbeing.com

Published every other Thursday
0ctober 13, 2005, Vol. III Issue 21 

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             In this issue: Hospitals & Hospitality
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Dear Friends,

Have you ever noticed that hospitals and hotels have at least two
things in common: rooms and food service? But what about hospitality?
Think about it: hospital, hospitality. Now there's a commonality. 
Yet hospitality is not a word commonly associated with hospitals, 
is it? Can the connection be made? Does it have value? You'll find
out, starting in this issue.

We usually focus on health and wellness issues, women's health, 
nurses appreciation, etc. Our speakers often keynote conferences 
and special events to educate and motivate people toward better 
health. Yet there are other issues going on in your organizations 
that contribute to the entire picture and you may have some chal-
lenges similar to the hospital (who chose to be anonymous) featured
in this article.

I'm excited to share the start of this three-part series featuring 
Holly Stiel's work with hospitals. I've respected Holly's approach 
to improving how people deal with people and situations since I met 
her over ten years ago. She hasn't written a book specifically 
regarding hospital customer service, managed care or any other big 
healthcare issue. Her approach is integrated (not canned, not one-
shot). Her philosophies cross boundaries of industries, and are 
particularly effective in places involving human interaction 
between consumers and frontline service providers.

Sound familiar?

Yours truly,
Barbara


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          Bringing the Concept of Hospitality to Hospitals 
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Holly Stiel sees the connection between hotels and hospitals not 
only in the fact that both hotels and hospitals have rooms and food,
but especially the link between resorts and hospitals. "People come
to a resort hoping for a little bit of magic that a few days respite
might provide," she says. "People come to a hospital hoping for a 
little bit of magic that will make them better. And I say that 
with humility and all due respect. I do not make light of brain 
surgery or any other medical procedure.

"The point is that it is the service providers, those many players
in addition to the doctors and nurses, who deliver aspects of
the magic so important to the total experience for the families, 
as well as the patients."

For one hospital, it was the construction of a new wing that brought
the concept of hotel hospitality to the limelight and led to excep-
tional customer service, linking key departments in unprecedented 
ways. The unlikely glue? Establishing a hospital concierge service.

It all started with a new tower to house cardiovascular services. 
Now if you've ever been through a hospital construction project, 
you know the logistics can be a nightmare. The change created a new 
entrance with a new lobby. People were coming in droves to a place 
that never existed before, causing mass directional confusion for 
staff and patients alike. 

After trying various solutions unsuccessfully, they realized that 
the new lobby required a new position. They knew they didn't want 
just a receptionist, and it wasn't a job for the Admitting Department.
In a light bulb moment, they realized they were looking for someone
more like a hotel concierge. What they wanted was a go-to person who
would have all the answers, who could provide an elevated level of 
service and take the pressure off all the other frontline people who
have their own responsibilities. 

"We put the focus on what's happening in the consumer's mind. As 
employees of the hospital who have important responsibilities and 
deadlines, we sometimes forget that this is where people's most 
significant life and death events happen - this is where they are 
born, where they die, where they come when they are sick or injured.
We needed to look at things as consumers.

"We placed importance on the idea that the patient families are an 
aspect of the hospital service and their well-being is our responsi-
bility as well," the planners noted. "It's a family's experience, 
not just the patient's experience." 

For example, (here is the logistics issue again), the patients and 
their families, in trying to find their way around the new center,
were encountering,(let's be blunt), grumpy employees who were just 
trying to get their jobs done and weren't appreciating the inter-
ruptions of being asked directions, etc. 

Unprecedented as the concierge idea was, it took commitment to get
a commitment and get the position funded. It took the willingness 
to overcome the barriers and try something new. The administration
settled on funding one full-time person with accountability, and 
access to patient records. This was key. The person had to be able
to do more than point people down the hall. They had to be able to
pull up information and confirm where that person was supposed to 
go. This person with clearance would be a filter, a screen and 
initial contact. The idea was that they have responsibility as 
well as authority. 

They had no idea how much more this would become.

Once the position was approved, they were faced with the issue 
of training. They didn't want a build-it-yourself concierge. 
They wanted a service standard that was uncommon in hospitals. 
So they thought, let's see how hotels do that.

That's when they found Holly Stiel. She literally wrote the text-
book for hotel concierge services and is currently engaged, through
her company Stiel Media, to bring that expertise to other types of
businesses. Not only is Holly an expert on the art of concierge 
service, her approach is all about the heart of customer service, 
with the complexities of human interaction and human emotions 
central to the concepts and skills she teaches. 

"The hospital environment is fraught with emotions from A-Z, 
anxiety to zero sleep, especially for the patient's family," 
Holly observes. "There's some combination of hope, fear, dread
and boredom gnawing at the hearts and souls of family members 
in every waiting room and at every patient bedside. Not only 
are people often in heart-wrenching situations where their 
emotions are raw, they're surrounded by uncertainty and 
unfamiliarity. What better place for personable, sensitive 
attention?" 

TO BE CONTINUED IN OUR NEXT ISSUE: Holly's Integrated Approach

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                   In the Headlines: No Fun
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I've been searching my clippings file for something fun, like My Pet
Fat,(Vol. II, Issue 8, http://www.speakwellbeing.com/single_newsletter.php?ID=10)
or Thanksgiving in a Bottle (Vol II, Issue 24, 
http://www.speakwellbeing.com/single_newsletter.php?ID=26 ), 
to report to you, to no avail. I haven't clipped a good cartoon in 
months. I hope it's not my sense of humor that's lacking here. I 
prefer to think it's the lack of good news in general. If you've 
run across something fun and interesting (a product or activity) 
related to health and wellness, we'd love to share it with our 
readers. Please send it in!

Meantime, when tragedy does hit and it's far removed geographically 
or otherwise, I think it still affects human beings at a very deep 
level (I dreamt about being in an earthquake the other night). Some 
people, like one of our speakers, Sandy Queen, chose to help on a 
personal level. She's on site in Louisiana sharing her big heart, 
helping hands and her sense of humor and compassion with the 
hurricane victims. I can't wait to hear her stories. 

Others choose to collect goods, stage a benefit or make a donation. 
If you're looking for a place to help, here's a recommendation:

When Katrina hit, Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge, LA was designated
by the state of Louisiana as the region's facility to care for women
and infants affected by the hurricane. After several weeks, and 
another hurricane, its needs are still great. Learn how you can 
directly contribute to the hospital to support the many needs of 
its patients at:

http://www.healthywomen.org/womanshospitalletter3.html

Until next time, take care of yourself, and look for some fun 
for your well being and those you love.

Yours truly, 
Barbara

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                      ABOUT OUR SERVICES 
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The Speak Well Being Group specializes in providing exceptional 
speakers for health, wellness and women's events. Because we've 
worked with so many hospitals and healthcare groups around the 
country, we speak your language. Our hand-picked speakers are 
attuned to your needs and adept at addressing the issues while 
delivering information in an entertaining way, or simply providing 
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