Inside HopeHealth’s Guest Experience Services Department
Stephanie J. Isgett, MHA, Guest Experience Manager
April 25-29 is recognized as Patient Experience Week, an annual event celebrating health care staff positively impact the patient experience. At HopeHealth, all staff play a role in ensuring our patients receive compassionate, patient-centered care that exemplifies love for people and passion for their well-being. HopeHealth prioritizes these relationships so much, in fact, that our guest experience services department exists solely to ensure our patients, whom we refer to as guests, have an enjoyable experience during their visit to any HopeHealth location.
HopeHealth utilizes the word “guest” versus patient, vendor, or customer, establishing that everyone who enters our doors is to be treated the way we would treat a guest in our home. As manager of the guest experience department, I can attest that we pride ourselves on forming meaningful connections with our guests and want them to trust in and feel comfortable with HopeHealth.
Guest experience services is composed of a team of nine employees located at the Medical Plaza in Florence. While these services are currently only offered at the Medical Plaza, our department intends to expand into other locations. Our department focuses on taking care of guest issues, training staff to provide excellent guest experiences, incentivizing standards, greeting guests, helping them navigate our facility, and ensuring a positive first appointment for new primary care guests.
In order to provide our guests with great hospitality, we make sure to consistently praise our guest ambassadors and the work they do to build a meaningful rapport with our new guests.
Ambassadors contact guests to confirm their appointment the day before, let them know what to expect at the visit, and provide information on items to bring with them for their appointment.
At the start of their first appointment, ambassadors are able to help with paperwork and identify anything new guests may be eligible for, such as educational courses, community events, and HopeHealth’s benefit programs which may assist with copays and medication assistance. The ambassadors can even help build connections to valuable resources outside of HopeHealth that can help address any barriers to care.
After the first appointment, ambassadors make meaningful contact again and reinforce this connection by reaching out to inquire about the quality of the visit and answer any additional questions.
The consistent communication facilitated by ambassadors throughout the new guest’s appointment process helps guests recognize they are valued by HopeHealth and deserve
quality health care. New guests often get emotional while with an ambassador, sharing the relief they feel knowing HopeHealth staff care for them regardless of their situation. Reactions like this keep us striving for greater ways to enhance the quality of care and customer service our guests receive.
In these ways and more, the guest experience services department works hard to prioritize going the extra mile for our guests. I am grateful to work with a staff who truly embodies HopeHealth’s vision: serving others, giving hope, changing lives.
Stephanie J. Isgett serves as guest experience manager at HopeHealth. She has over 25 years of customer service experience in marketing, sales, advertising, and health care. For more information about HopeHealth’s guest experience services department, call (843) 667-9414.
