Customer Service Application

Scenario and Recommended Information System

At present the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) is the leading public health provider in Trinidad and Tobago. Although the region is not without its challenges providing quality health care is one of our main priorities. At present the region has suggestion boxes in all our facilities. Each suggestion box has copies of questioners which highlight the patient’s name, contact number and their complaints. These boxes are emptied by one of the customer service representatives (CSR) on a daily basis. Each facility depending on the size has a CSR to assist patients as problems arise. Complaints are highlighted and brought to the Quality Coordinator to address in the form of a excel spreadsheet. The Quality Coordinator contacts the client for the details of the report after which the supervisor of the staff being reported is contacted for their understanding of what occurred. In the event that the member of staff did not follow proper protocol corrective measures are taken however in the event that policies and procedures were followed the client is contacted and informed, however efforts are often times made to assist the client. This process can be an extremely long and drawn out one primarily because there are approximately twenty seven facilities with a number of departments within these facilities therefore keeping track of each department and complaints/suggestions of all can be a challenge. Instead of suggestion boxes at each facility there should be a device that clients can use to indicate how their stay at that facility was. This device will be similar to the suggestion box however an electronic version. If the client indicates their stay at a named facility to be a good one the question of why will be asked, this will help the region to understand the areas they are excelling to ensure that they continue along these lines, additionally by becoming aware of procedures that receive positive reactions from one facility can assist other facilities with similar issues. If the client’s stay was not a good one the question of why in addition to their contact information will be taken. All of this information will be sent directly to the Quality Coordinator. Each time a survey is completed an email informing the Quality Department of such will be sent to their ERHA email. Providing that there are a number of facilities complaints/comments will be assigned to CSRs responsible for that particular facility and the Quality Coordinator will be notified as reports are received and addressed from the system through their email. There will also be a rating as it pertains to the severity of the report (Severe, Moderate and Low) this will indicate what level of staff needed to address the problem. In the event that the issue is low it can be addressed by the CSR if the issue is moderate it will be addressed by the Quality Coordinator and in the event that the issue is severe the Manager of Quality will either choose to address the issue or delegate it to someone competent enough to handle it. This will ensure that the issues are addressed promptly and efficiently. As issues are concluded the system will indicate such and a report will be generated monthly in addition to which issues are still outstand. This report will be sent to the Manager and the Quality Coordinator. The system will also rate each facility with regards to their customer service capabilities. By so doing the manager will be aware of which facilities needs special attention to improve their customer service rating. This system will help the Quality Department to manage issues more effectively. It will also help the department identify which facilities are not customer friendly and resources can be deployed to improve this issue. Monthly reports and daily emails will also help with tracking and reduce redundancies while splitting the responsibilities based on severity will lighten the workload and help the response to be quick and effective.

Depicted System Benefits

One of the first benefits this system will bring to the region is improved efficiency. The monthly reports will help the manager and coordinator to track reports and the status of each report. The daily emails and reports/comments received will eliminate the process of reading each written report received, imputing the information to an excel sheet and bringing the report to the attention of the coordinator. The system will now be responsible for completing all these tasks while staff members attached to the department can channel their energy into addressing issues as they arise. There will be a lot of time saved and utilized in other areas. Additionally while the system may be costly to implement in the long run it can save the region a lot of money as there will no longer be the task of printing forms all of this information will now be stored and backed up on a system. The options of acquiring information at any time as it pertains to a facility, for a particular date and the actions taken will be accessed quickly and easily in appose to going through complaint forms and excel sheets which have become overpopulated over the years. Managerial incite will be drastically improved as they will now be able to see reports at they occur as well as how members of staff handle complaints. The quality of care received from each department will be improved primarily because if members of staff know that complaints are taken seriously and that there are consequences to their actions they may be more inclined to handle situations professionally. Additionally members of staff can also be commended for a great work done which will also serve as a motivation mechanism.   

Anticipated Challenges to Implementation

Some of the challenges I anticipate will include staff refusal to comply with the implementation of the system. Members of staff may feel as though this system is designed to keep track of and report them to their supervisors and as such they may choose to withhold critical information needed to effectively implement the system. There is also the challenge of training members of the Quality Department to utilize the system. This can be very time consuming as individuals all learn at a different paste. It will therefore take time for the department to adjust to this new system, and they too might resent the change as their response to reports will also be tracked. They may also look at this as additional work since it will now also be the responsibility of the CSRs, coordinator and the manger to handle reports whereas with the current system only the coordinator handles reports. Another challenge will include the fact that there are a variety of age groups as it pertains to clients. Not all clients will be teksavvy and it may be difficult for the older clients to understand and use this new system. This can therefore result in them either not using the system or becoming frustrated while using the system. To alleviate this problem CSRs assigned to the various facilities can assist clients as to how to use these electronic suggestion boxes.