A G.R.E.A.T. (guest relations emphasis all the time) idea. Guest relations program emphasizes a patient-based mission

Healthcare, in spite of its tremendous clinical, technological, and financial pressures, is patient based. Guest relations programs seek to remind clinicians, technicians, and financial officers of that fact. St. Joseph Medical Center, Fort Wayne, IN, is striving to combine its mission-driven philosophy of healthcare with responsible competitive strategies, and guest relations is a natural and integral part of the plan. St. Joseph appointed 10 persons to a task force to develop its guest relations project. The task force assigned teams of two members each to concentrate on specific objectives: implementation, policy development, medical staff involvement, existing areas that overlapped with the new guest relations efforts, and evaluation. The task force chose 10 persons outside the education department to train 1,400 associates in 65 sessions over three shifts in three months. An outside consultant trained the trainers on the same day she addressed the management team on the importance of their ownership and involvement in the program. While the task force worked on operational details, the advisory group on policy development began laying the groundwork for what may be the most valuable part of any guest relations program: administration-approved policy and procedures, which address communication, standards of excellence, human relations skills, and positive personal attitudes.