As Lawrence General Hospital’s patient advocate, Maria Vargas has seen patients on their worst days and after some of their most difficult or stressful medical experiences. Vargas, a six-year employee of the hospital, interacts with patients on a quest to provide what she calls “service excellence.”
Whether they call to register a complaint or offer a compliment, Vargas acknowledges all feedback, recognizing each patient’s concern as valid and important.
“It’s important for patients to always feel acknowledged,” said Vargas, who worked in other social service-oriented roles throughout the Greater Lawrence community over the last 20 years before coming to Lawrence General. “When we acknowledge a patient’s complaint and say “When we acknowledge a patient’s complaint and say we’re sorry, we’re not necessarily saying we did something wrong. We’re saying we’re sorry for the experience. If that’s my experience, to me, it happened. That’s valid.”
Hospital wait times are a common issue, Vargas said, as are lost belongings. During the pandemic, Vargas found that communication barriers also became a hot topic due to the restriction on visitors.
To get the best service, Vargas encourages patients to be open with hospital care providers up front. “They need to let us know their preferred language, who they want us to release information to – and make sure they know all of their patient’s rights,” she said. The patient rights and responsibilities policy, for example, states that a patient has a right to offer feedback about their care.
According to Vargas, all employees are expected to provide “service recovery” at the time of the incident and assist patients. Should the complaint or issue escalate, patients speak to Vargas.
“If we provide service excellence and take a more proactive approach, we won’t be responding to the same complaints and grievances,” Vargas said. “We want to make sure all of our patients have a great experience from beginning to end.”
When Vargas trains staff on service recovery, she discusses things like compassion, active listening and demonstrating a high level of caring. All complaints are also logged, managed, and tracked via the internal Incident Reporting system, RL, she said.
Hospital leadership is made aware of all complaints – and praise – so that issues are dealt with and kudos offered. In fact, much of the feedback left by patients in post-treatment surveys is incorporated by providers and staff to improve policies and procedures.
A recent example is in the mammography and imaging departments, Vargas said.
“A complaint came through and the following week, I got a great compliment about what the previous patient complained about because they acted so quickly,” Vargas said. “Those are examples I like to use so the organization can see how we can benefit.”
Vargas is thrilled that the hospital has the role of patient advocate, seeing the benefit as two-fold.
“My goal is for everyone to see me as a bridge between the community and the organization,” she said. “I want the organization to see me as someone who’s providing opportunities, not complaints.”
Feb. 1-7 is National Patient Recognition Week. Started in 1995 by health care worker John O’Malley, the week’s goal is to reflect on patient care and ensure patient satisfaction. Lawrence General’s patient advocate Maria Vargas can be reached at maria.vargas@lawrencegeneral.org.