Mary Aboagye awarding a certificate to a graduand
Executive Director of Health Concern Ghana, Mary Aboagye, has charged nurses to make excellent customer service in the health industry their hallmark.
Speaking at the eighth graduation ceremony of the Health Training Institution, she said customer service, although one of the simplest least complicated aspects, it is often overlooked aspect of healthcare.
“Indeed, several studies have shown that there is a direct relationship between customer satisfaction and business growth/success,” she hinted.
Mrs. Aboagye said it was important to note that most of the time clients and their relatives who visit healthcare facilities do so under immense emotional and physical stress due to ill-health and other related factors.
“It is, therefore, crucial that health professionals meet such clients with utmost care and respect to calm their nerves and allay their fears. Indeed, in such stressful situations, some clients may even be rude and unkind, nevertheless, this should never warrant retaliation on the part of the care-giver,” she added.
Mrs. Aboagye said everyone in the healthcare facility has a role to play to provide excellent customer service; from the receptionist to the janitor, from the nurse to the medical officer as providing customer services do not cost much.
“I am convinced that the provision of excellent customer service in healthcare facilities in Ghana is well within our reach,” she reiterated.
Crisler Ankrah, who represented the CEO of McDan Group, Dr. Daniel Mckorley, said contemporary health professionals must accept the challenge that the phase of customer care in respect of their daily duties has changed.
“Now the healthcare environment has changed to one where the patient is demanding more than normal so we must look at how that resonates with the nurse who is the health professional and the work that they are doing,” he stated.
He said just like the theme: ‘excellent customer service in health delivery, every life counts’, young health professionals must be inspired to understand that they don’t just work to get money but they are dealing with life which counts and their disposition to be able to do that in an excellent way so that at the end of it all, not only would the customer be well and okay but they we able to leave an indelible print on their minds.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri