When the Florida Hospital for Children discovered in 2009 that it had some of the most dissatisfied patients in the country, it turned to an unlikely source for help -- Mickey Mouse and company.
Two years and about $200,000 in consulting fees to The Walt Disney Co. later, work areas are now "back stage" and "front stage" zones. Many staff are "cast members," and new visitors to the 200-bed facility are met by a ukulele-playing greeter in Jungle Book-esque safari gear.
Patient satisfaction? It has now moved up to the 80th percentile of all children's hospitals nationally and patient volumes are up by almost half, said Tim Burrill, the hospital's assistant administrator.
"When you go to Disney, you expect a great product and service," Burrill said. "Before, we weren't delivering that."
Florida Hospital for Children is one of a growing number of health care organizations looking outward to improve patient satisfaction. Beyond the ever-present need to vie for patients, health care organizations now face millions of dollars in government funding cuts if they can't demonstrate that their patients are happy on government-required surveys.
Beginning in 2013, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will withhold 1% of Medicare reimbursements from hospitals and reimburse them back to hospitals in amounts tied to their survey results. That will increase to 2% by 2017.
The financial sting would be particularly felt at organizations throughout retirement-heavy states such as Florida, where sometimes half of the patients are on Medicare.
The Disney Institute, which aims to capitalize on those concerns, began pitching its health care consulting services this summer.
Training cost ranges from about $1,300 for a few days of workshops to several hundred thousand dollars for intensive, year long consulting work, Disney spokeswoman Stacey Thomson and hospital administrators say.
Hospitals and businesses that sign on with Disney are not necessarily looking to give their campuses a theme park makeover. Rather, the training focuses on more prosaic workplace issues, such as improving staff morale and learning to treat patients more as customers, hospital administrators and Disney representatives say.
"Patients don't know if the MRI machine you're using is the newest," said Patrick Jordan, health care industry consultant for the Disney Institute. "But they can absolutely tell you the experience they had with the technician."
Entering an 'un-hospital'
Entering the Walt Disney Pavilion at Florida Hospital, visitors are greeted by a smiling "park ranger" ready to provide directions. A vague floral scent, which is produced by aroma-emitting machines tucked behind window plants, hangs in the air.
Immediately to the left is a Disney-themed play area, complete with figures from The Lion King, Brother Bear, The Jungle Book and The Little Mermaid.
The Disney film Beauty and the Beast plays on a large screen television nearby.
It's an elaborate entrance aimed at making the hospital look as much unlike a hospital as possible.
"A lot of people say 'Wow, I can't believe this is a hospital,'" said Traci Woods, the hospital's family experience director. "We're OK with that."
"We love it," said Tiffany Ray of Sanford. Her 4-year-old son, Dean, was born without a pancreas and is receiving treatment for his diabetes. "He feels much more comfortable here."
Trying to satisfy more
Large and small organizations have sought out Disney for help.
The 75-bed Barton Memorial Hospital in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., is among them, as is
the 25-bed Grant Regional Health Center in Lancaster, Wis.
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics faced criticism from some state legislators over its plan to spend $130,000 to send 35 of its executives to the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida for training, about the same time it was discussing layoffs.
Given the criticism, the hospital opted instead to bring Disney consultants up north, said Gordon Williams, chief of operations for University of Iowa Health Care.
Its patient survey scores were hovering in the 20s, on a scale of 0-100. Scores of the 4,646 hospitals that federal regulators tracked averages about 67, the data show.
To date, University Hospitals has spent about $180,000 to train 2,000 of its 7,000 staffers. The hospital defends the program, noting that its scores have improved dramatically. According to government records, the hospital is now 67, at the national average.
"It's headed in the right direction," Williams said.
Paul Duncan, University of Florida professor of health services research, management and policy believes the health care industry's rush into the customer-service business is probably inevitable.
But, he said, that's not necessarily a good thing.
Employing companies such as Disney or the Ritz Carlton are expenses that could translate into higher hospital bills, he said.
It is also unclear if hospitals will extend high levels of customer service to patients who are uninsured or under-insured, he said.
"I'm not at all sure it is a healthy process," Duncan said. "But it seems clear that's where we are now headed, at least for the relatively well-insured."
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