Monday, June 25, 2007

Uh oh, we're making it TOO nice!

Note from a friend whose spouse was in for day surgery:

This is the best waiting room. I have wireless access, a quiet table to work at with an outlet next to it, coffee shop downstairs, and a harpist just started playing. I'd work from here anytime.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I work at BI and I love the harpist...when he/she plays in the west campus lobby the music echos up to the floors along the clinical center/farr building connection bridges! Stress relief while working and running around!

Emily DeVoto, Ph.D., said...

Who pays for the harpist anyway? Can you bill his/her time to Medicare? I'm not kidding. I wrote about this stuff (ok, a little ironically) a few months ago: http://health-counterspin.blogspot.com/search?q=harp

Anonymous said...

Hi Emily,
The harpist is supported by a donation from a person in the community who has asked to be anonymous. It is not billed in any way to any payer or to any patients.

Anonymous said...

At our nearby hospital we have often suspected that many ER visits are primarily because the facilities are nicer, better appointed and more air conditioned than the patients' homes...

Anonymous said...

Can't possibly be TOO nice. The more I see of what BIDMC is doing to operate like a real business, truly concerned about the customer experience, the more impatient I become to see more of it!

I feel so strongly about this that I don't even know whether to add a smiley to that.

It's true within BIDMC, too. Now that I've seen some really great people being really great with me, I'm increasingly impatient with other people at BIDMC who haven't "gotten it" yet.

More harps and harp-like innovations! Yeah!

Anonymous said...

It really is the best place to work�but I have a question Paul?

Why are the beautiful pictures in the patient�s rooms behind their heads? It is nice for me to walk in as a nurse and see Van Gough above my patients head ...but she can't see it?

The sound effects on the floors can be grueling. Patient's can spend days and days with beeps and alarms as background noise. It would be nice if the music was available to our inpatient population. I am sure it would decrease the amount of Ativan I have to give my patients who tend to have anxiety.

It would be a fascinating study to see if there were improvements in our length of stay/outcomes just by adding music to the formula???

RN

Bernard said...

A harpist! Who would've thought! When I build a hospital I would like something like that! :D