This week, I was admitted to Sant a Pau Hospital as a companion during a surgical procedure that required an overnight stay and then home. And I was delighted to discover that even in large public organizations, it is possible to improve service by listening to users.
What do we often complain about? The lack of information that generates uncertainty, which leads to discomfort in a situation that is already emotionally charged. Well, the bureaucratic instructions were clear, as were the initial preparations, introduced with the phrase: "Now I'll tell you how you'll spend your day." In the waiting room, many eyes were glued to the screen indicating the patient's stage. I received three text messages: "The patient has entered the operating room," "The procedure is complete," "The patient has left the surgical suite." And they also called me on my cell phone to meet with the surgeon and assistant, who gave me a brief, understandable summary explaining that the operation had proceeded without complications. Once on the ward, three nurses introduced themselves by name and gave us brief instructions on how the service worked.
Knowing where I was at all times, and not feeling lost in the physical immensity of a hospital or the emotional distance of a goodbye at the door of a surgical suite, made my experience more peaceful, and from what I saw in the waiting room, everyone was the same: waiting, but without added worries. Many thanks to those responsible for this fluid flow of information, to those who once received complaints from users, to those who escalated them to their superiors, to those who transformed them into imaginative protocols, breaking inertia—which is never easy—and, of course, to those who executed them with precision. Another point for the public health system in that country.
