Hailey Tran
Senior hospital executive Fred Lee's book, *If Disney Ran Your Hospital*, explores how hospitals can emulate Disney by transforming service visits into positive patient experiences. Lee's work has been adapted into training for hospital staff, which challenges the assumptions that have defined customer service in healthcare for decades. The training explores why excellence service initiatives haven't led to high patient satisfaction or loyalty. Lee argues that hospitals, like Disney, should focus on providing an experience rather than a service. This involves empowering employees to make decisions on the front line, using technology to create a seamless and effortless user experience, and focusing on non-clinical outcomes such as staff teamwork, cheerfulness, and compassion.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Providing an experience, not a service | "We Create Happiness" |
| Empowering employees to make decisions | Elevating the status of employees |
| Using technology to create a seamless and effortless user experience | Using an app to display wait times, book appointments, and provide parking and walking information |
| Focusing on non-clinical outcomes | Staff teamwork, overall cheerfulness, compassion, and response to concerns/complaints |
| Creating a culture, not just a job | Patient-centered care (physical and emotional) |
| Making courtesy more important than efficiency | N/A |
| Coordinating systems and people | N/A |
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What You'll Learn
- Focus on creating an experience, not just providing a service
- Empower employees to make decisions and facilitate excellent service
- Use technology to create a seamless and effortless user experience
- Prioritize courtesy over efficiency, focusing on patient-centred care
- Learn from Disney's Guestology—the study of the people for whom they provide a service
Focus on creating an experience, not just providing a service
In his book, *If Disney Ran Your Hospital*, Fred Lee, a former vice president of two major medical centres and a former cast member at Walt Disney World, challenges the assumptions that have defined customer service in healthcare. Lee's work has been adapted into training designed to help hospitals emulate Disney by transforming service visits into positive patient experiences.
Lee's book highlights the importance of creating a culture of patient-centred care, both physical and emotional. This involves making courtesy a higher priority than efficiency and empowering employees to make decisions that facilitate excellent service. For example, giving employees the autonomy to approve common-sense requests, such as eating outside or offering a room upgrade when a mistake has been made, can help to elevate their status and reduce burnout.
Another key aspect of creating a positive patient experience is to focus on non-clinical outcomes, such as staff teamwork, the overall cheerfulness of the hospital, compassion for patients' conditions, and responsiveness to concerns and complaints. By hiring and retaining empathetic caregivers, hospitals can better meet the emotional needs of their patients.
Technology also plays a crucial role in creating a seamless and effortless user experience, as seen in Disney's use of data collection to improve its offerings. Hospitals can similarly utilise technology to create a friendly and frictionless patient experience, such as through the development of an app that provides accurate wait times, allows patients to book their appointments, and provides interactive maps for navigation.
By adopting these principles and prioritising the creation of a magical experience for patients, hospitals can strive to provide exceptional service that exceeds expectations, just like Disney.
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Empower employees to make decisions and facilitate excellent service
Empowering employees to make decisions and facilitating excellent service are key components of the Disney approach. In his book, *If Disney Ran Your Hospital*, Fred Lee, a former vice president of two major medical centres, writes:
> "The authority to say yes elevates the status of every employee. A major contributor to burnout is a feeling that one has no control over one’s work. Being unable to make decisions, unable to please a patient or the family without permission, unable to do anything but pass on complaints, is debilitating and discouraging."
Lee's words highlight the importance of empowering employees to make decisions and take ownership of their work. This sense of agency can help reduce burnout and improve job satisfaction.
While healthcare is not 100% consumer-driven, there is value in granting frontline workers more autonomy to make common-sense decisions. For example, allowing patients to eat outside in the garden or offering a room upgrade after a mistake has been made can help improve the patient experience.
Adopting this approach can also help hospitals create a seamless, efficient, personal, and friendly experience for patients, similar to what they might find at Disney. Technology can play a significant role in this regard, streamlining processes and improving the overall patient journey.
By empowering employees to make decisions and prioritising excellent service, hospitals can create a culture centred around patient-centred care and satisfaction and loyalty, ultimately enhancing the patient experience and improving healthcare outcomes.
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Use technology to create a seamless and effortless user experience
Technology plays a crucial role in creating a seamless and effortless user experience, as seen in Disney's theme parks and hospitals aiming for a similar experience. Here are some ways technology can be leveraged to achieve this:
- Embrace Digital Transformation: Hospitals can utilize digital technologies to streamline processes and enhance the patient experience. This includes implementing user-friendly websites and apps that provide accurate wait times, allow for appointment scheduling, and offer interactive maps for navigation. Embracing digital solutions, such as telehealth and remote monitoring, can reduce the need for physical visits, improve timely interventions, and optimize resource utilization.
- Integrate Smart Technologies: Smart hospital management systems can connect various digital systems, making it easier to access critical information like bed occupancy, device usage, equipment status, and supply counts. This real-time data improves resource management, reduces waste, and ensures that hospital staff have the necessary resources available when needed.
- Enhance Patient Engagement with AI: AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants provide instant responses to patient queries, schedule appointments, and offer basic advisory services. This not only improves patient engagement but also frees up time for healthcare providers, allowing them to focus on more complex tasks and improving overall efficiency.
- Secure Data Management: Implementing blockchain technology adds a layer of security and transparency to healthcare data management. It ensures the integrity of patient records, safeguards against unauthorized access, and facilitates secure sharing of health information across different systems. This promotes seamless collaboration and improves interoperability within the healthcare ecosystem.
- Empower Frontline Employees: Technology can empower frontline employees to make decisions that enhance the patient experience. For example, providing nurses and doctors with real-time data and decision-making tools can facilitate common-sense requests, such as accommodating outdoor meals or offering room upgrades when appropriate. This autonomy contributes to employee satisfaction and reduces burnout by giving them a sense of control over their work.
By leveraging technology in these ways, hospitals can create a seamless and effortless experience for patients and staff, mirroring the efficient and engaging environment found in Disney's theme parks.
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Prioritize courtesy over efficiency, focusing on patient-centred care
In his book, *If Disney Ran Your Hospital*, Fred Lee, a senior-level hospital executive, writes about how hospitals can emulate Disney by transforming service visits into positive patient experiences. Lee's work has been adapted into a training programme designed to help hospitals learn how to create magical patient experiences.
Lee suggests that hospitals should focus on creating a culture of patient-centred care, both physical and emotional. Courtesy and patient happiness should be prioritised over efficiency. This is in line with Disney's vision of "We Create Happiness". Every Disney employee, or "Cast Member", is expected to make guests happy, whether they are “onstage" or "backstage".
Hospitals can adopt this approach by empowering employees to make decisions on the front line that facilitate excellent service. For example, allowing patients to eat outside in the garden or offering a room upgrade when a mistake has been made. Lee writes, "The authority to say yes elevates the status of every employee. A major contributor to burnout is a feeling that one has no control over one’s work."
Hospitals can also learn from Disney about coordinating systems and people, creating seamless, efficient, personal, and friendly experiences. Disney uses technology to create a seamless and effortless user experience and to collect data to improve its offerings. Hospitals can similarly use technology to create a friendly and frictionless patient experience, such as by developing an app that displays accurate and up-to-date wait times for A&E.
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Learn from Disney's Guestology—the study of the people for whom they provide a service
In his book, *If Disney Ran Your Hospital*, Fred Lee, a senior-level hospital executive, writes about his experience working near Walt Disney World and the lessons he learned from Disney's approach to customer service. One of the key takeaways is the importance of Guestology, which is the study of the people for whom a service is provided.
Disney's approach to customer service is centred around creating happiness and providing a magical experience for its guests. This involves putting the guest at the forefront of every decision and exceeding their expectations. Hospitals can adopt this mindset by focusing on the patient experience and prioritising their physical and emotional needs. This includes simple measures such as improving the clarity of employee name tags and uniforms to make it easier for patients to identify different roles, as well as implementing “on-stage” and “off-stage” areas to ensure employees are sharp and focused when interacting with patients.
Empowering employees to make decisions and have more autonomy can also contribute to a better patient experience. Lee writes, "The authority to say yes elevates the status of every employee. A major contributor to burnout is a feeling that one has no control over one’s work." By giving employees the ability to accommodate common-sense requests, hospitals can improve patient satisfaction and reduce stress for both patients and staff.
Technology plays a significant role in Disney's ability to create a seamless and effortless user experience, as well as collect data for improvement. Hospitals can learn from this by utilising digital solutions, such as an app that provides accurate wait times, allows patients to book appointments, and offers interactive maps for navigation within the hospital.
By adopting these principles of Guestology and combining them with a patient-centred culture, hospitals can strive to create exceptional experiences and improve patient loyalty, similar to the level of loyalty that Disney has cultivated.
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Frequently asked questions
The book, written by Fred Lee, a senior-level hospital executive, highlights the importance of patient-centred care and how culture would be prioritized over strategy and organizational structure. It emphasizes that courtesy should be prioritized over efficiency and that employees should be empowered to make decisions to facilitate excellent service. The book also discusses the importance of using technology to create a seamless and effortless user experience and to collect data for improvement.
Hospitals can improve the patient experience by adopting a guest-centric approach, similar to Disney's "Guestology". This includes focusing on non-clinical outcomes such as staff teamwork, cheerfulness, compassion, and responsiveness to concerns. Hospitals can also improve wayfinding and reduce wait times through the use of technology, such as interactive maps and up-to-date wait time information.
Hospitals can create a culture focused on patient-centred care by prioritizing courtesy and empathy in the hiring and retention process. Additionally, hospitals can empower employees to make decisions and provide excellent service by giving them more autonomy to accommodate common sense requests.
