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In This Issue:
BWH recognizes one individual each month as part of the hospital-wide effort to enhance quality of worklife by sharing outstanding efforts on the parts of staff and employees. Now, the initiative is taking on a grassroots flavor, with individual departments identifying new ways to share the good work performed by employees.
One such initiative is the Emergency Department’s (ED) “Caught in the Act” program. Michael Bailey, emergency services assistant, first suggested the idea to the ED’s multidisciplinary team that focuses on compassionate care and service improvement.
“We often find ourselves focusing on the dissatisfied customers and not those individuals who offer us praise,” said Bill Briggs, RN, ED assistant nurse manager. “While it is very important to address complaints, we felt it also was important to herald the many wonderful interactions provided by our staff.”
The team set up a voice-mail box for patients and/or families to call if they wished to recognize the care of a member or members of the ED team, including volunteers and staff rotating through the department. Each individual mentioned is recognized with a certificate of appreciation with a text copy of the message.“Whether the messages are about physicians, nurses, CT techs or volunteers, they all seem to reflect the person who took a little more time to listen, to make the patient more comfortable,” said Briggs. “This process has been very telling in terms of patient satisfaction.”
Since its inception in June, the program has recognized 70 members of the Emergency Department staff.