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April 15, 2008 NEWSLETTER
Doug Wojcieszak, Founder & Spokesperson
Contact phone/e-mail address: 618-559-8168; doug@sorryworks.net
THIS WEEK'S EDITION:
- Oprah Selects.com now lists Sorry Works! Book!
- Southwest Airlines: Customer Service and saying "sorry"
- Sorry Works! Travels & The 2nd Victims
OPRAH SELECTS.COM NOW LISTS SORRY WORKS! BOOK
The phenomenal run for the recently released Sorry Works! Book is getting even better as the book is now listed on Ophah Selects.com.
The Sorry Works! Book is the "how-to" manual on disclosure and apology. At 103 pages it's a quick, concise read, and at $21.95 per copy it's affordable for any healthcare, insurance, or legal professional. We also offer generous bulk discounts.
To find out why the Sorry Works! Book has been listed on Oprah Selects.com order your copy today by visiting this link: http://www.sorryworks.net/booksoon.phtml . To inquire about bulk discounts, please contact Sorry Works! Founder Doug Wojcieszak at 618-559-8168 or e-mail doug@sorryworks.net.
Not only is Oprah's organization talking up the Sorry Works! Book...so are your healthcare and insurance colleagues. See quotes below:
- The Michigan Society of Healthcare Risk Managers bought a copy of the Sorry Works! Book for every one of their members and had this to say: "We felt this book would make an excellent resource for our members and assist them in promoting and teaching disclosure and apology of medical errors in their institution." Margaret Curtin, President, Michigan ASHRM
- "For the first time, the authors have clarified the difference between empathy and apology, which will help everyone to move forward with this important concept that can improve patient safety and reduce liability risk," Pat Sedlak, Director, Aon Risk Services
"The authors truly dispel the myths associated with disclosure and apology, enabling providers to get past the barriers and get to strengthening the physician-patient relationship – a better result for everyone occurs when providers show they care in the right way!" Neil Hutcher, MD, Bariatric Surgeon, Past President of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery
- "The Sorry Works! book is wonderful, and just what I needed for my organization! It is concise, informative, and very sensible. It should be required reading for any group considering development of a Disclosure policy and for those training to become champions for their organization." Rhonda L. McGlothlin, Director, Risk Management & Insurance Operations, Centra Health, Inc.
- "Every hospital risk manager should read this simple and profound book. It makes the case that expressing empathy and sympathy to patients and accepting responsibility, when appropriate, is kind, humane, and liberating." Brian J. Teusink, Senior Vice President, PHT Services.
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES: CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SAYING "SORRY"
The past few weeks have rough for the airline industry, including our friends at Southwest Airlines. Sans the problems with the FAA, Southwest Airlines still has the best approach to customer service in the airline industry and can teach healthcare professionals a bunch. Read the column below from the March 2008 edition of Spirit Magazine and see how Southwest empowers their front-line employees to be proactive about fixing problems - which is a great lesson for nurses and nursing supervisors. The column also discusses management personnel and how Southwest management sends apology letters to aggrieved passengers. Pretty powerful stuff.
Are your nurses and front-line employees empowered? Does your organization have a superb five-star customer service approach? Read below for ideas:
Delivering Proactive Customer Service
March 2008 edition of Spirit Magazine
Southwest Airlines
Time dictates every aspect of the airline industry. From the reservations process to the flight length, your wait at baggage claim, and your trip from the airport to your final destination, the clock is ticking. When things go awry, our internal clocks start to keep track. That's why we created the Proactive Customer Service Communications Team.
Our goal is to solve a problem when it happens, and we empower and encourage our Frontline Employees to take the necessary steps to resolve the situation. There are times, however, when an entire airplane full of Customers may encounter a particularly stressful or very inconvenient situation. That's when our Proactive Customer Service Communications Team springs into action. This group of just four Employees tracks the Customer "pulse" of our entire operation.
Way back at the beginning, the folks on my staff met daily with representatives from our operating departments to determine when we needed to send a letter of apology to every Customer on a flight. Our goal was (and remains!) to have that letter in the Customer's hand within 48 hours. But this was just an interim step until I could find an Employee with extensive airport experience and great writing skills to "own" this project.
My quest paid off when I found Fred Taylor. Along the way, Fred's one-man duties evolved into a Team of four. While the Team still writes to Customers on flights with unusual circumstances, it has streamlined the process and greatly expanded the criteria for sending these letters. This group is also part of our proactive Customer Service efforts in other equally challenging circumstances. For example, this Team-along with Customer Relations, Reservations, and all our operating departments—helped develop our re- accommodation plan for airports impacted by or under the threat of hurricanes, blizzards, or other disruptive acts of Mother Nature. This plan allows Customers to make alternative travel arrangements at no additional cost. When these kind of events strike, the Proactive Customer Service Communications Team provides information about how our Customers are affected to all departments involved, our codeshare partner ATA Airlines, and to Customers through advisories on southwest. com. Other more specialized proactive Customer communications also fall under this group's umbrella.
Fred's Team is truly bilingual in an airline kind of way—the foursome translates the specialized jargon of our operational side into plain English that you can understand. I am very proud of how this group has turned our vision into reality. But there's more to come; we're always working on improvement.
Welcome Aboard! Colleen Barrett President, Southwest Airlines
SORRY WORKS! TRAVELS & THE 2ND VICTIMS
Sorry Works! Founder Doug Wojcieszak has been wracking up the frequent flyer miles recently with speeches in Tampa Bay, Houston, Austin, and Delaware. Fortunately, the traveling stops for a little while after a speech this week in Chicago.
The hectic travel schedule included a visit at the Missouri Patient Safety Center's Annual meeting last week, where Wojcieszak and Sorry Works! co-author Jim Saxton signed copies of the new Sorry Works! Book. The Missouri Patient Safety Center bought copies of the book for every attendee at the meeting. While at the meeting, Wojcieszak heard Sue Scott of the University of Missouri Health Care discuss their approach to helping the "second victims" - providers who have been involved in an adverse medical event.
The media, trial lawyers, and politicians have spent a great deal of time focusing on how patients and families suffer - which they do - but little has been said about how well-meaning providers suffer too after medical errors. Depression, quitting or retiring early, ruined marriages and families, and yes, even suicide all are common among providers after medical errors. Unfortunately, the deny/defend culture of medicine coupled with the tort reform movement has isolated and ostracized providers who have made mistakes - and this is wrong. It's cruel. It also sets up these providers to make more mistakes.
A good disclosure program not only reduces litigation by reducing patient and family anger, it also reduces liability exposure by providing critical support for the 2nd victims. When a provider has made an honest mistake they need all the support they can get - they need someone to talk to - they need healing. They need learn from these events and be able to move on with their lives. A good disclosure program has these support services built in. The Sorry Works! Book describes how to support your 2nd victims.
See you next week!
To see the book's Foreword, Table of Contents, and Author Biographies, click on this link: http://www. sorryworks.net/pdf/SorryWorksForeword.pdf. To see additional information on the book, visit this link: http://www.sorryworks.net/booksoon.phtml
To purchase the perfect Doctor's Day Gift call today at 618-559-8168 or e-mail doug@sorryworks.net to get your copy of the Sorry Works! Book. Thank you!
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