Errand Solutions drives efficiency and patient satisfaction at St. John Hospital and Medical Center

Robert B. Takla, M.D., MBA, F.A.C.E.P., Medical Director and Chair

Department of Emergency Medicine, St. John Hospital and Medical Centers said about Errand Solutions:

"This partnership has driven efficiency and patient satisfaction to incredible results."

See his entire article about how St. John Hospital in urban Detroit exceeded targets for efficiency, volume and patient satisfaction.

Errand Solutions helped St. John Hospital earn excellent patient satisfaction scores at a NPS of 80% (net promoter score) while at the same time serving the highest ED volume. The NPS for the Errand Solutions team (referred to as Guest Relations Associates) exceeded 95% during the same periods.

Who says that kind words can't heal?

Take a look at how phone outreach for cancer patients improves their condition - FiercePracticeManagement: http://bit.ly/9SVAAS via @addthis

Consider this: you feel miserable. You're in your second round of chemo, and you're trying to be brave for your family. You want to keep up with your contributions at home, but simply don't have the strength... and you're tired of looking at the pile of dishes mounting in the sink.

Now imagine you could call your treatment center's patient services hotline. Not only can you get help for your clinical issues, but an agent from Errand Solutions is ready to help you with any non-clinical issues. Need housecleaning or gardening help and want to ensure that they're reputable? Errand Solutions eases your concern with our Service Excellence Guaranty.

When nagging worries are resolved, it does have an affect on pain management; check out the study in the article link, above.

How does Errand Solutions help nurses with Guided Care?

Take a look at how Guided Care & boosts satisfaction with patient/family communications: http://bit.ly/bo69HH via @addthis

Now, imagine how a nurse with caseload of 50-60 chronically ill older patients. Who does the nurse turn to for non-clinical needs voiced by the patient? Should the nurse ever say 'but that's not my role' to requests for non-clinical home services? That's where Errand Solutions steps in: we never say 'no' and always find a way to help the patient and their caregivers.

Synchronization between Errand Solutions' agents and nursing is the key of success with the Errand Solutions Caring Call program. Our phone agents ensure that all clinical issues are immediately directed to nursing while all non-clinical issues are referred to Errand Solutions.

Errand Solutions maintains all non-clinical case history for easy reference to reminders, patient preferences, and payment information to keep things as effortless as possible for patients.

We help put patients and their caregivers more at-ease by taking care of the issues patients can control around the house. Happy patients and caregivers served by happy nurses is the Errand Solutions Experience.

Raising HCAHPS Results > Recommending Hospital to Friends and Family

Many hospitals are struggling to raise HCAHPS results using a variety of action plans with varying results. Leading hospitals have a full action plan including experts in each area of concern on the survey. Keep watching while I blog a series on the components of an HCAHPS improvement strategy. The following issue is a critical component to any HCAHPS improvement strategy.

Issue #6, Willingness to Recommend Hospital: our program at St. John Providence – Ascension has shown a dramatic increase in Net Promoter / Top Box results. How could that be at an inner-city Detroit facility? What’s our secret? Our focus on the patient and their guests with our experience in exemplary customer service. When we support the patient, guest, and even the clinical team with their needs, we ease the tension in the hospital.

Check out http://www.errandsolutions.com/site/patient.htm for ideas on how Errand Solutions helps leading healthcare organizations.

Raising HCAHPS Results > Quiet at Night

Many hospitals are struggling to raise HCAHPS results using a variety of action plans with varying results. Leading hospitals have a full action plan including experts in each area of concern on the survey. Keep watching while I blog a series on the components of an HCAHPS improvement strategy. The following issue is a critical component to any HCAHPS improvement strategy.

Issue #5, Quiet at Night: Ever need to just get some shut-eye? Now imagine getting poked, prodded, and continually disturbed by a new roomate all night long. Errand Solutions provides amenities such as earplugs, iPod earphones, and DVD player rentals to help patients experience peace at all times of the day and night.

Check out http://www.errandsolutions.com/site/patient.htm for ideas on how Errand Solutions helps leading healthcare organizations.

Raising HCAHPS Results > Cleanliness of Room and Bathroom

Many hospitals are struggling to raise HCAHPS results using a variety of action plans with varying results. Leading hospitals have a full action plan including experts in each area of concern on the survey. Keep watching while I blog a series on the components of an HCAHPS improvement strategy. The following issue is a critical component to any HCAHPS improvement strategy.

Issue #4, Cleanliness of Room and Bathroom: No matter if hospitals insource or outsource environmental services, there are times that housekeeping miss a detail that becomes a memorable gap in the patient’s experience. In the Errand Solutions Warm Welcome rounding program, we visit each new patient and review a checklist of issues including room cleanliness, water and ice refills, and room temperature issues. Our once-over helps the hospital team address interim clean-up opportunities right away, as well as detect systemic improvement opportunities by identifying patterns.

Why wait to see complaints on surveys? Be proactive and check out http://www.errandsolutions.com/site/patient.htm for ideas on how Errand Solutions helps leading healthcare organizations.

Raising HCAHPS Results > Pain Management Effectiveness

Many hospitals are struggling to raise HCAHPS results using a variety of action plans with varying results. Leading hospitals have a full action plan including experts in each area of concern on the survey. Keep watching while I blog a series on the components of an HCAHPS improvement strategy. The following issue is a critical component to any HCAHPS improvement strategy.

Issue #3, Effectiveness of Pain Management: Although Errand Solutions cannot relieve the patients’ pain, we do help them pass the time more comfortably in the hospital with our Magic Moments program. Patients remember this when they are surveyed. At Cooper University Hospital, our DVD and Book Club library helps patients put their mind elsewhere.

Although Errand Solutions can provide comforts and distractions, patients headed home face a myriad of challenges in their daily tasks. When patients worry about how they will manage their daily needs at home, it only exacerbates their focus on pain. Errand Solutions counsels patients on their everyday needs at home and arranges services which calm concerns and settles minds. Our contracted VendorPartner relationships ensure quality, reliability, and fair pricing.

Why worry? Check out http://www.errandsolutions.com/site/patient.htm for ideas on how Errand Solutions helps leading healthcare organizations.

Raising HCAHPS Results > Patient Discharge

Many hospitals are struggling to raise HCAHPS results using a variety of action plans with varying results. Leading hospitals have a full action plan including experts in each area of concern on the survey. Keep watching while I blog a series on the components of an HCAHPS improvement strategy. The following issue is a critical component to any HCAHPS improvement strategy.

Issue #2: Discharge Information provided: It seems that no matter how many times you tell a recovering patient, they may not comprehend their discharge instructions. You write it down and both doctor and discharge nurse review it verbally. Leading hospitals enhance the message so that unmistakably, the patient locks on their discharge instructions. The most progressive have outsourced the discharge process to revolutionize the transport process into a helpful “fond farewell” experience. Some hospitals even provide amenities to smooth the transition to home to continue the healing.

What makes Errand Solutions’ approach to the discharge process different? Our professionally trained customer service team provides your patients and their guests with a 5-star hotel experience. Our friendly concierge greet your patient at their bedside by name, ask how we can help them plan for their trip home, and what home needs your patient may have to recover from their stay. Our transport time is filled with dialogue where we detect any uncertainty about their discharge information, so we can call up to the floor for nursing to address any issues even before the patient leaves your front door. We make a stop at our discharge lounge where patients experience our hospitality with transportation, prescription orders, grocery or other home service needs. Patients experience our Fond Farewell, and make no mistake remembering the care they received at discharge when they respond to any survey.

Check out http://www.errandsolutions.com/site/patient.htm for ideas on how Errand Solutions helps leading healthcare organizations.

Raising HCAHPS Results > Responsiveness of Nursing Services

Many hospitals are struggling to raise HCAHPS results using a variety of action plans with varying results. Leading hospitals have a full action plan including experts in each area of concern on the survey. Keep watching while I blog a series on the components of an HCAHPS improvement strategy. The following issue is a critical component to any HCAHPS improvement strategy.

Issue #1: Responsiveness of Nursing Services: How can nursing provide any more bedside care than they already provide? Many hospitals have formed entire departments around comfort rounding to patients and their families in order to minimize interruptions to the clinical team, while serving to expedite communication to nursing or physician staff for priority situations. The most progressive organizations recognize the need to outsource customer service so that staff can focus on the clinical needs of patients.

Check out http://www.errandsolutions.com/site/patient.htm for ideas on how Errand Solutions helps leading healthcare organizations.

Errand Solutions lightens the burden for nonprofit hospitals tracking charitable contributions: Illinois Supreme Court challenging nonprofit status

Nonprofit hospitals are under pressure from all angles, and the Illinois Supreme Court has made it even more difficult: Nonprofit hospitals must provide "an adequate amount of charity care to patients or risk losing significant tax exemptions". An Illinois Supreme Court decision March 18, 2010, puts nonprofit hospitals on notice that they must provide an adequate amount of charity care to patients or risk losing significant tax exemptions. The complete article can be viewed at:

Community benefit report crucial for Provena - chicagotribune.com

Errand Solutions supports a great number of nonprofit hospitals across 11 states including Illinois. Our proprietary case management system tracks every single interaction with patients and guests, providing our hospitals with critical data to track non-clinical charitable services. Errand Solutions provides detailed monthly reporting showing charitable transactions, such as:

-- transportation vouchers and travel arrangements to fly/train/bus patients home (when falling ill and being served by the nearby hospital)

-- food vouchers within the hospital for newly discharged patients awaiting transportation home

-- home services arranged through Errand Solutions that are not covered by social work, Medicare or Medicaid

-- office support, printing, copying, notarizing and other services otherwise unavailable in typical hospital settings.

-- time spent on research, for a variety of issues such as the non-clinical home-care recommendations for new ailments that the patient and family now must work around

Errand Solutions delivers the patient and visitor record-keeping system-of-record for all non-clinical interactions. Our reporting detail satisfies all levels of data analysis needs.