Includes bibliographical references (p. 411-429) and index.

Healthcare service strategy -- Healthcare and the new consumerism -- Customer as a guest -- Meeting customer expectations through planning -- Creating a healing environment -- Developing a culture of customer service -- Healthcare service staff -- Staffing for customer service -- Training for customer service -- Motivation and empowerment -- Involving the patient and family in coproduction -- Healthcare service systems -- Communicating information to customers -- Delivering the service -- Waiting for healthcare service -- Fixing healthcare service problems -- Measuring the quality of the healthcare experience -- Leading the way to healthcare excellence.

Information about customer service hits and misses is now more accessible to healthcare consumers. Outstanding healthcare organizations set the bar at a high level for both clinical and service excellence. Customers who are armed with information and aware of their options are choosing providers they believe are ready, willing, and able to provide the superior experience they expect. This book offers a blueprint for successfully competing in today's competitive healthcare marketplace. It presents the theories, methods, and techniques behind delivering an excellent healthcare experience through strategy, staffing, and systems. Each chapter explores a service principle and provides numerous real-world examples and current research findings. Among the many topics discussed are creating a patient-centered environment; building a culture in which customers are treated like guests; training, motivating, and empowering staff; measuring service quality; managing service waits; and recovering from a service failure. This second edition has been completely updated. Concepts have been expanded to include information on: * Significance of aligning strategy, staffing, and systems * Evidence-based service management and design principles * Customer relationship management * Internet-based opportunities for various purposes, including communication, information, marketing, recruitment, feedback, and training * Retail clinics, concierge medicine, telemedicine, and other new customer-driven innovations.

TBS953