Canada's health care system - take two

So a completely different experience to report back on. Went in to the walk-in clinic and was seen in 10 minutes. Then went to get blood work done the next day and that took about 15 minutes. Then I also found out that even if you don't have a family doctor, you can get one easily by simply booking online and they will even correspond with you via email to arrange your appointments.

As always, I do my best to make things on this blog about public relations and surprisingly this experience with the health care system has brought up some interesting PR thoughts (which surprises me, because I didn't think it would).

What strikes me about the health care system is that it truly has terrible customer service and does absolutely nothing to manage public perception of such service.

Now, this isn't surprising since, after all, they have a customer base that really have no options. Either you take whatever service they offer or leave it, it makes no difference to them. And they themselves are swamped with an endless sea of people with health problems, so customer service takes a back seat to simply getting the job done.

But just because you don't have to (or can't) manage your reputation or concern yourself with what patients / customers think, does that mean you shouldn't?

I'd argue that you should.

Some very simple and basic steps that health care service providers could take to positively enhance how the public viewed their services would include:

• How to use the system FAQ
  
• Every service provider has a Web site (except family doctors). A simple FAQ would help remove a lot of confusion associated with health care services.
  
• For instance, if you're going to go to a walk-in clinic, you've got a much better chance of being seen in 15 minutes if you go at 2 p.m. versus going at 4:30 pm. While it may seem like common sense to those who've used a walk-in clinics (like myself now), you wouldn't know this first time around. Like any service, there are probably 15-20 most common questions that a simple FAQ would resolve (which would in turn cut down on questions doctors and staff have to deal with).
  
• From A-to-Z there was nothing to inform me of what to expect when visiting the walk-in clinic - and when you walk in to a waiting room with 30 people in, it can be a bit intimidating trying to figure out where you should go and what you need to do!
  
• Customer feedback
  
• Nothing says "We don't care" (which isn't actually the case) like not even asking your patients how they found the service - heck, the folks that change my oil care more about what I think than someone who is taking care of the most important thing I own - my body!
  
• There is no opportunity for patients to give any kind of feedback as to the care they received. Business 101 - if you don't know what kind of experience your customers are having, how can you possibly know how to improve it? Sometimes the solutions are brain-dead simple but if you aren't communicating with your customers you'll never know what they are - which means everyone has a less pleasant experience than they otherwise could have (including the health care professionals). 
  
• Also, while most doctors are excellent, you could easily have bad doctors go on forever and never know it, since no one ever has the opportunity to provide feedback on their experience. And there could be bad doctors who don't even know they are bad! If they were able to view feedback it might be surprising how they self modify to be better. Or for those who are good, how such feedback would increase the value they perceive associated to the work they are doing. Without this feedback loop it seems to me that doctors would often feel unappreciated and so would the patients.
  
• The thing with customer feedback is that even if you don't act on the feedback people at least feel like you care and as a result perceive your services in a completely different light (they start to 'appreciate' them). Feedback can also help customers appreciate the good service they received by making them take a moment to think about it, as opposed to simply taking such services for granted.
  
• Bedside manners
  
• Now remember, we're talking PR here (not the micro details of actual doctor bedside manners). When I was a kid, I remember going to the doctor and getting a lollipop. Now, as an adult if I want a lollipop I'll go buy one, but it's not about that. The experience today seems to be in you go, out you go, NEXT! Once again, the patient is often left to feel like a nuisance.
  
• A simple lollipop or even a little business card with a smiley face that says 'Thanks for coming. Your health matters to us.' or a thousand other little ideas could radically change how health care services are viewed.  In life it's almost always the little acts of kindness that go a long a way and it boggles the mind how when it comes to business people often ignore these acts and in the process remove the human-element that so many people are seeking.
  
• Wrapping up - empowering the patient
  
• One thing that I still scratch my head over is how after the doctor sees you, they simply send you on your way without a solution. The doc diagnosed me with likely having a virus and allergies combined (and he was right), but didn't give me anything and simply sent me on my way. Taking his diagnosis I analyzed what could be causing my allergies and discovered mold in a hidden spot in my washroom (and I'm a neat freak so I never in a million years thought there would be mold in my washroom - and probably still wouldn't if not for him saying allergies). Since getting rid of the mold, I'm rapidly recovering, within hours I started feeling better. Who knows how long that mold has been impinging on my health, I suspect for a long time.
   
• But if I hadn't used my own critical thinking abilities I'd still be sick! The doc's diagnosis got me headed in the right direction, but neither the doctor nor the other professionals seemed to care that I came in sick and was leaving sick with no remedy to the solution. 
  
• Once again, for certain symptoms, it would be so easy to give patients a basic checklist of things they can check. So for myself, I presented with sinus issues and dizziness, leading to an allergy diagnosis. For allergies there could be a basic checklist to give folks, things to assess yourself. For instance, is there mold anywhere in your environment, have you tried reducing dairy intake, etc. (I don't know what would be on the list, but that's exactly my point!) We're not talking self-diagnosis here, simply providing the patient with basic information about things to check out about their environment and life style that could be contributing to their symptoms.
  
• And to the point of feedback mentioned earlier... I have no way of communicating to the doctor I saw that I think I've figured out where the allergies were coming from. So my record won't show this until I get an annual check up (yep - I've signed up for one of those also!)

So here's the basic conclusion to all this. The health care system could easily have a much better reputation than it currently does by implementing some very simple and basic public relations techniques.

Inform the customer. Interact with the customer. Empower the customer. 

Simple as pie.

The problem however is that health care professionals are not communicators - and like most people who aren't communicators, they likely find the thought of more communication intimidating or simply something that will lead to more headaches (and yet, us PR pros know that the opposite is almost always the case).

It seems to me that the notion of public relations is severely absent in the health care industry. And that's a shame. I don't think it has ever really been a part of the industry, but thinking back to when I was a kid, doctors and staff had the time to address patients in a way that made up for that.

In today's in-and-out as fast as possible health care model it seems a shame that no one is asking the question "Are there simple things we could be doing to make the experience more useful and enjoyable for patients and health care professionals themselves?"




I think if such questions were asked they'd quickly deduce that communication / public relations could be of valuable assistance in helping the health care system run more efficiently and effectively while bolstering how Canadians view and appreciate the services they are getting!