Apple Bites Issue 1

Issue 1 October 2009 A monthly publication that shares with you the essence of good service.

In our first issue of Apple Bites, we want to find out what service means to the different professions in the hospital. Dr Leong Khai Pang, Senior Consultant of RAI shares his thoughts with us. How important is it for doctors to provide good service? Isn’t good medical care better than good service? To me, there is absolutely no question that a doctor must provide good service to his patients. In truth, we cannot afford bad service to our patients. When a patient enters a clinic, he or she will encounter a series of people working there, who will deliver varying levels of service. The doctor cannot be the weakest link because the patient judges the whole experience to a large extent on the doctor’s demeanour. It is ridiculous to waste precious clinic time placating a patient who was offended by bad service when we should be addressing medical issues.

Food for thought:

Patients reciprocate the way we treat them. If we are rude to our patients, they become offensive. If we are indulgent, they become demanding. If we respect them and treat them with courtesy, they respect us and treat us with politeness. Providing good service simply makes the medical consult more pleasant and promotes compliance.

Apple Bites is a monthly publication in which we share with you the essence of quality service through interesting and creative content. We hope to spread the message of quality service and improve our hospital environment by all of us believing in and demonstrating excellent service. How do our patients rate us? Customers’ Satisfaction Survey Results

How we treat our patients is a physical manifestation of how we think of them. We cannot be rude and abusive and yet claim to love our patients. Human beings are superbly sensitive to other people’s inner thoughts and feelings. We can be sure patients will know if we are inpatient, sarcastic or indifferent. If we claim to care for other individuals, we must show it in our spontaneous behaviour. In other words, we must provide good service. - Dr Leong Khai Pang

Jan 09

Jul 09

Overall

63.7%

68.2%

A&E

64.9%

60.7%

SOC

64.7%

72.5%

Wards

62.0%

66.9%

Best performance in July 09! SOC: GRM (84.4%) Ward: 9D (95.2%) Special commendation to our Allied Health Professionals! Jan 09

Jul 09

Knowledge and skills

73.7%

86.4%

Care and Concern

72.2%

81.5%

1. Imagine if you were the patient, how do you want to be treated 2. What can you do to make your department more service-oriented? 3. How can we encourage one another to provide better service to our patients?

APPLE HIGHLIGHTS ! 1.

2. 3.

4.

Continue to fill your Apple board with patients’ compliments. The top 3 departments from each of the 4 groups with the most points will walk away with attractive prizes! Harvest Day is coming! On 6 Nov 09, we’ll celebrate the success of our service together! Stay tuned! Our Apple website, blog, video competition and Facebook are here! Visit us at http://beexceptional for more information. Stand a chance to win attractive vouchers by sending us your Creative Apple-related Photos! (E.g. Macbook, even your Adam’s apple!) So get creative now! Send your entry to [email protected] (indicate name and department) by 10 Nov 09. Limited to one entry per person. Top 3 most creative entries will be announced in the next issue on 17 Nov 09!

MOH Customers’ Satisfaction Survey 09 will be conducted from 26 Oct to 6 Nov 09. Let’s put forth our best and be exCEPtional!

Do you know? 1. A good customer experience is told to 8 other people. 2. A bad customer experience is told to 22 other people. 3. It takes 10 good experiences to make up for one bad one.

If you/your department has any recent developments or stories to share with us at Apple Bites, please email to [email protected].