Medical And Wellness Tourism

MEDICAL AND WELLNESS TOURISM MARIANNE JAVIER MEDTOU A.Y. 2024-2025 HOTELS BRIDGING HEALTHCARE | MEDICAL TOURISM & WELLNESS A NEW HEALTHCARE CONCEPT  HOSPITALS AND LUXURY Two words that just don’t seem to go together. Or do they? HOW ABOUT A LUXURY HOSPITAL...

MEDICAL AND WELLNESS TOURISM MARIANNE JAVIER MEDTOU A.Y. 2024-2025 HOTELS BRIDGING HEALTHCARE | MEDICAL TOURISM & WELLNESS A NEW HEALTHCARE CONCEPT  HOSPITALS AND LUXURY Two words that just don’t seem to go together. Or do they? HOW ABOUT A LUXURY HOSPITAL?  Healthcare includes hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, life care, and continuing care facilities.  It is a segment that shows NO signs of slowing, and there will be MANY career openings for hospitality and healthcare management graduates.  This is due to the fact that people are AGING and will therefore require MORE medical procedures going forward into the future. H2H  “Hotels bridging healthcare”: a mixed-use concept  Part of the broader field of medical tourism, which links medical facilities to hotels and/or spas  H2H creates a new and innovative business model for entrepreneurs  Goal: fulfill the unmet needs of certain patients and their families in a hygienic, complementary, and friendly environment  Environment that provides quality accommodations, upscale treatments, and state-of-the- art wellness centers for RECOVERY.  H2H strategically connects hotels and hospitals to create a total customer experience  About 75% of all hospital services today are hotel and hospitality-related services (Cetron et al., 2010) If Disney Ran Your Hospital  If Disney ran a hospital, it would define the competition for customer loyalty as anyone the customer compares you to. WHO IS DISNEY’S COMPETITION? COMPETITION  The answer is not Universal Studios or others, but Disney takes a wider view and looks at “any competition that the customer compares us to.”  This could be Lexus, Costco, or Amazon-where they may witness a high level of service and an over- the- top experience.  “In the battle for the supremacy of perceptions in the patient's mind, our competition is anyone the patient compares us to. Unfortunately they do not compare us to other hospitals.” (Lee, 2004) The Disney Experience  Disney and healthcare are worlds apart in their product offering and purpose.  While healthcare is largely a utilitarian service offering (i.e., patients need a problem to be resolved), guests visit Disney parks seeking an exciting, carefree experience.  Despite the obvious differences, success can be measured similarly; what kind of experience did the guest have?  Focusing too much on tangible or financial metrics can cause an organization to lose sight of its entire purpose and mission: to provide the customer with the best experience possible.  Warning: losing sight of this goal could lead to a decline in the financial performance of the organization. If a service provider is professional, competent, and treats the guest with respect, then the guest’s experience and appreciable outcomes, taken in aggregate, will be manifested. THE GALLUP ORGANIZATION, 1999  The four top drivers of patient satisfaction are when:  nurses anticipate patients’ needs  the staff and department work together as a team  staff respond with care and compassion  staff advise patient if there were going to be delays PRESS GANEY ASSOCIATES REPORT (2003) Top drivers for patient satisfaction included:  how well the staff worked together to care for patient;  overall cheerfulness of the hospital;  responses to concerns or complaints made during the patient stay;  amount of attention paid to your personal and special needs;  nurses kept patient informed;  nurses attitudes toward patient requests, skill, and friendliness of the nurses. However, hospitals spend much of their time on the clinical outcomes, but less on how the patient judges the outcomes. The patient therefore is evaluating the total experience of the healthcare facility (not solely the clinical medical experience) HOW TO BE LIKE  At Disney, employees are referred to as cast members and all customers are referred to as guest.  The Disney strategy is to be “assertingly friendly” and to teach cast members what to say to make the best positive impression. (structured scripting for cast member and guest interactions does this.)  Healthcare can also follow these practices toward higher guest satisfaction and loyalty levels.  It is about managing the moments of truth between guest and cast member interactions to create a powerful positive impression.  If Disney ran your hospital, nurses, for example, would begin to believe that they are judged not so much against the standard of other nurses, but against the standards set by the nicest people providing services anywhere. The same goes for the food service staff, housekeepers, and doctors (Lee, 2004). COURTESY OVER EFFICIENCY  During the Disney Traditions mandatory training program, the four most important areas in order that Disney stresses are (1) safety, (2) courtesy, (3) show, and (4) efficiency.  The safety as number one aligns well with hospitals, but the other areas particularly related to patient satisfaction (e.g., courtesy) are not clearly defined and thus not carried out in service delivery.  This is why Disney places courtesy higher than efficiency. THE REAL SECRET TO GUEST SATISFACTION  The secret is not satisfaction.  Getting customers to return is the key to a profitable and long lasting business.  Unfortunately hospitals cannot bank on getting guests to return because of “better prices” nor a convenient location, coupons, and the like to get guests to become loyal and sing the praises of the healthcare facility comes from compassion shown by the staff.  A person that is “satisfied” has no story to tell as everything went as expected.  It is the unexpected service experience that generates a memorable story. By doing something special for  For every loyal guest, there is usually a memorable story (Lee, 2014). guests, they will remember this and if you do not do something memorable, they will not remember their stay, as it is just another night in a hotel. This experience generates a buzz or story for others to tell—building loyalty. SAY ‘YES’ TO GUESTS, TO PATIENTS  Disney empowers cast members to say yes to solve a problem for the guest.  Setting this type of service structure to do what it takes to serve the guest is practiced successfully by the service culture of Marriott, where the culture of following the mantra is if you take care of your employees, they will take care of the customer/guest.  This guest first structure helps to shape and drive culture of compassion (for patient/guests).  It is not possible to practice this level of service compassion if making guest decisions in real time is mired in many layers of bureaucracy, giving rise to slow and ineffective service DISNEY’S TEAM STRUCTURE  Disney is “decentralized” to an extent where employees could move around the park to meet service peak time demands. For example, breakfast in the hotels was very busy (especially with Disney character breakfasts) and lighter during the lunchtime, whereas in the Parks, lunch was an extremely busy time.  Therefore, the employees could shift over to the parks from the hotels to have to meet this demand crunch at peak times.  This team structure helped to make sure guests were taken care of during the busy service times Disney’s Star Wars cast members MANAGEMENT MUST LEAD THE ROAD TO SERVICE EXCELLENCE  Management can also be a barrier to service excellence and saying yes to the guest.  Do employees need management’s support to treat people nicely, or to show compassion in a hospital waiting room?  Do we need top management’s support to give more authority to frontline people?  But do employees need to be able to solve problems and have the power and support of management for service recovery, which is a true test of decentralizing (Lee, 2004). WRITE AN EFFECTIVE SERVICE SCRIPT FOR THE ‘CAST MEMBERS’  A service script provides a structured response for the employee in the service encounter in the system.  Service scripts or storyboards provide a structured framework of what is expected in the service performance.  It is not a rote-memorized script but allows the cast member to tailor the service respond to the situation and still get the message of care and compassion across to the patient or guest. SAMPLE MEDICAL ANSWERING SERVICE SCRIPT Imagine you’re at a doctor’s office or healthcare provider and you’re getting set up with a medical answering service to take calls from patient. There are lots of different kinds of calls that may come into your office that your new medical answering service will be handling. From appointment scheduling and symptom descriptions to insurance information and refilling prescriptions, there are plenty of scripting considerations. Here is a sample medical answering service script scenario to get you started…  Caller: Actually, I’m in the middle of something at the  Agent: Thank you for calling TE5 Family Medicine. This moment and can’t really write down anything. Would you is Nathalie speaking. How can I help you? be able to give me a call back?   Agent: No problem. I’d be happy to take your info and Caller: Hi, my name is Lemar Kent and I need to need to get a refill on my prescription. schedule a return call. What’s the best number to reach you at?  Agent: Alright, Dante. Are you a patient of ours?  Caller: My number is 206-555-4015.  Caller: Yes, I am.  Agent: Got it. And what would be the best time for you for  Agent: Great. Who is your doctor? a return call?   Caller: Anytime after 2 pm. Caller: I see Dr. Mangiliman.   Agent: Sounds good. And can I get your date of birth? Agent: Ok. So you’ll need to have your pharmacy fax over a prescription refill request. Do you have a pen to  Caller: It’s 4/1/82. write our fax number down?  Agent: Thanks. Would you happen to know the prescription  Agent: Ok Christine, let me just confirm number? your information. Last name is Kent. K-E-N-  Caller: One second, it’s right here in my purse. Ok, it’s T. Call back number is 206-555-4015. Is 327…412…800…5646. that correct?  Agent: And the name of the pharmacy?  Caller: That’s right.  Caller: It’d be the Mercury Drug over in Balibago.  Agent: Ok, the office will follow up and  Agent: Ok, and do you know their phone number? give you a call back today after 2 pm. Is  Caller: It’s right here on the bottle. Ready? there anything else I can help you with  today? Agent: Oh perfect. Go ahead please.  Caller: Nope. That will do it. Thank you!  Caller: 206-555-2083.   Agent: No problem at all. Thanks for Agent: And what is the name of the medication you’re looking to get refilled? calling and have a great rest of your day.  Caller: It’s Ativan.  Caller: You too. Bye! This is just one of many possible medical answering service scripting routes. There are plenty of times patients could be calling to schedule or cancel an appointment. That’s a pretty simple script to set up too, and when we incorporate an online appointment scheduling tool into the mix, it makes the process flow smoothly. Source: David, Lloyd, MTM Services Source: David, Lloyd, MTM Services Source: David, Lloyd, MTM Services Source: David, Lloyd, MTM Services Source: David, Lloyd, MTM Services Source: David, Lloyd, MTM Services Source: David, Lloyd, MTM Services Source: David, Lloyd, MTM Services Source: David, Lloyd, MTM Services SHARE THE VISION  Every Hospitality and Healthcare manager (Hospitality Manager) needs to reinforce the principles of service excellence and employ some of the tools and suggestions described in order to bring about loyalty.  Healthcare organizations need to focus on why patient or guest loyalty is very important, why satisfied patients/guests do not equate to loyalty; show why each employee has a role to play in the service setting, and how attitude, courtesy and compassion are the bedrock for success.  Sharing this vision with employees and providing a structure for them to serve the patient/guest, while understanding their role and following the script (storyboard) can be a recipe for success. TALENT VS. SKILLS  In selection of employees in the hiring practice, Disney auditions for talent instead of skills per se to perform roles rather than just jobs.  In the healthcare setting, manager’s needs to audition for the talent required in the role they will play again trying to exude compassion for the patient, which is more critical than the skills needed for the task (which often can be trained).  In the restaurant setting, you hear the saying “hire the smile” or “hire friendly” as I cannot teach “happy” (happiness). KEY WORDS  Hospitality  Healthcare  Quality  Medical  Tourism TO DO  OBJECTIVE: learn how to manage specific practice situations by learning and following scripted behaviors. Based upon role theory, service scripts require specific behaviors for a broad range of practice problems and communicate consistent messages about the responsibilities of all individuals working in a healthcare organization.  On next slide is a sample already given to do this activity.  List other SITUATIONS that may require “scripted behaviours” by all service providers in a healthcare company. PRACTICE PROBLEMS CLINICAL PROBLEMS MANAGERIAL PROBLEMS Patients who cannot pay for Patients with drug allergies Technician absences and their medicine tardiness 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5