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ENT surgery

Posted By surgery

"ENT surgery"

About: Box Hill Hospital

(as the patient),

I was a public patient at Eastern Health for radical mastoidectomy.

The intake, theatre nurses, anaesthetist, surgeons (including the registrars & medical student), surgical nurses & support staff were FANTASTIC.

The facilities, flow, communication, care, ward, cleanliness, organisation etc were exemplary! !

The outpatients clinic again chaotic but professional in care, however the customer service at Reception needs improvement.

They are curt, grumpy & intolerant. The reading matter needs to be updated & refreshed..some is dated by 2-3 years. Wi Fi for outpatients would also be a wonderful, plus there is no signal in the ENT outpatients clinic.

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Responses

Response from David Plunkett, Chief Executive, Eastern Health 10 years ago
David Plunkett
Chief Executive,
Eastern Health

Submitted on 4/08/2016 at 6:00 PM
Published on Care Opinion Australia on 5/08/2016 at 12:23 PM

picture of David Plunkett

Dear Surgery

Many thanks for taking the time to provide balanced feedback regarding your surgery and experience in outpatients.

I was pleased to read that your surgery went well and the staff and services worked like clockwork. Having surgery such as you did can be a stressful situation and again your feedback demonstrates this went well.

In reading your feedback regarding outpatients, I apologize that your experience didn't meet expectations. Based on feedback such as yours, we have been focusing on staff being kind and courteous every day and it is evident this didn't occur for you.

We have been doing a lot of improvement work in outpatients, including strategies to improve the patient experience and will include your suggestions in this work. We have also been working with the telecommunications companies to improve the mobile reception and I am sorry to say that we don't have a solution for this as yet.

I will make sure the staff are made aware of your balanced feedback and trust you are well on the road to recovery post-surgery.

Kind regards

David

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Update posted by surgery (the patient)

Hello David, thank you for your timely response. It is good to hear that you are on top of what is happening at your hospital. Thank you too for Eastern Health being proactive in its uptake of this wonderful program - Patient Opinion. I am excited to learn that my own regional health service is soon to launch it.

Further to my story, I would appreciate you looking again into wi-fi access in the Outpatients Clinic. The location of the clinic currently does not enable 3G or 4G signal. On my last visit there was roaming locked access (password enabled) for patients. Can a rolling password be enabled for each day or week for the outpatient?

An issue you did not address in your response was the very dated reading matter in Outpatients. The magazines are SO TIRED & from visit to visit they are rarely updated. The local paper has been the same issue for the past month. I suggest you stroll past esp to the ENT clinic corner to observe this. Lastly, Customer Service training is indeed needed for Reception staff. A simple beginning for them is a reminder to greet & look the patient in the eye when they present at the counter.

The facilities at Box Hill (both inpatient & outpatient) are outstanding & again the professionalism and warmth shown by clinical staff & support areas has been outstanding. I look forward to sharing further my patient journey as I progress with my treatment at Box Hill.

Response from David Plunkett, Chief Executive, Eastern Health 10 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
David Plunkett
Chief Executive,
Eastern Health

Submitted on 8/08/2016 at 7:05 PM
Published on Care Opinion Australia on 9/08/2016 at 11:02 AM

picture of David Plunkett

Many thanks Surgery

My apologies for not picking up the items you raised again. I will follow up on the availability for wifi in outpatients and let you know how I get on.

With regards to the reading material, we will look to refresh this, as I agree, it is all very dated and doesn't help when waiting for any period of time.

Regarding customer service, we are in the final stages of planning a new way the service is provided and you can be assured that making sure the basics of 'meet and greet' as you highlighted will be implemented for all staff who perform this function. I am truly sorry this was your experience as it is not in line with our values.

Many thanks again and I will be back in contact with the changes we are making.

Kind regards

David

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Response from David Plunkett, Chief Executive, Eastern Health 10 years ago
We have made a change
David Plunkett
Chief Executive,
Eastern Health

Submitted on 24/08/2016 at 1:43 PM
Published on Care Opinion Australia at 1:59 PM

picture of David Plunkett

Dear Surgery

I have been to visit the Specialist Clinics at Box Hill to see for myself your comments. I'm very pleased to say that following your feedback, we have now instituted newspapers to the waiting areas in the Specialist clinics. Aaron Shergis, Acting Associate Program Director for Eastern Health Specialist clinics, has lead this change and feedback from patients and families to date is the newspapers are a very welcome edition!

We are also looking to install screens in the waiting areas to display free to air television. While we don't have wifi available as yet, I can assure you we are working through how we can make this happen as well.

I would sincerely like to thank you for your feedback and trust the next time you visit these services, your experience will be more enjoyable.

Many thanks again and kind regards

David

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Update posted by surgery (the patient)

Hello David,

I was again at Box Hill Outpatients Clinic last Friday. It was so very pleasing to have current magazines to read. And I did see one (1) newspaper which at the time I thought may have been left by another patient. Thank you.

The reception staff customer service was excellent. They were all bright, cheery & helpful. Another improvement!

The addition of free to air TV will be a bonus as you work through WI-FI provision. Thank you for your attention to my feedback. Regards,

Update posted by surgery (the patient)

Dear Eastern Health, I returned to Outpatients this week after a 2 year gap and was very disappointed to note that the improvements put into place in August 2016 have slid away. The reading material of consisting of disarrayed magazines mostly of Royal Auto's, EHQs and other tired and oft repeated publications was only dispersed with 2 2018 mags. There were no newspapers in sight and certainly no free to air television screens. The wifi & mobile roaming access, not unexpectedly due to building design, is not an option.

The Outpatients administration were incredibly happy, helpful and cheery!

Response from David Plunkett, Chief Executive, Eastern Health 8 years ago
We have made a change
David Plunkett
Chief Executive,
Eastern Health

Submitted on 27/08/2018 at 6:22 PM
Published on Care Opinion Australia on 28/08/2018 at 9:05 AM

picture of David Plunkett

Dear Surgery

Thank you so very much for letting me know things were not in place as I had previously mentioned. I was very dissappointed this was the case - as you were from your experience today.

The availability and currency of magazines and newspapers will be corrected ASAP and progressing with the installation of TVs in the waiting areas on level 2 & 3 will occur in the coming weeks. There are TVs in the waiting areas on level 1.

Should you have the need to attend the clinics again in the future, I would sincerely welcome your continued feedback and thank you so much for your postiive comments regarding the administration staff.

Kind regards

David

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Update posted by surgery (the patient)

Thank you David for your prompt reply & attention to this matter.

Response from David Plunkett, Chief Executive, Eastern Health 8 years ago
We have made a change
David Plunkett
Chief Executive,
Eastern Health

Submitted on 2/09/2018 at 12:59 PM
Published on Care Opinion Australia on 3/09/2018 at 9:07 AM

picture of David Plunkett

Dear Surgery

Thanks again for your feedback.

By way of update, I am pleased to let you know (albeit much later than I wanted) that the televisions have been ordered for level 2 and 3 clinics at Box Hill Hospital and hope to have them installed in the coming weeks.

Appreciate you taking the time to provide your comments - truly appreciated!

Kind regards and take care

David

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