The Total Service Medical Practice: 17 Steps to Satisfying Your Internal and External Customers [Hardcover]

Vicky Bradford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1997

Managed care has forced physicians to become more service orientated. Not only are they concerned with the day-to-day activities such as payments for insurance companies and providing care for patients, but they are also concerned with maintaining quality service. This practical guide provides information on maintaining quality service in a physician's office. The text offers a model which explains the process for developing a service-driven medical practice. It expands the definition of customer to include both internal and external and examines identifying customers, creating a service promise, implementing specific processes, evaluating systems, and establishing a service recovery approach.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 392 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Publishing Co; 1st edition (January 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557386455
• ISBN-13: 978-1557386458
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,835,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical Insights for Health Care Providers and Patients, February 4, 2000

By 

Alan D. Winkler (U.S.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Total Service Medical Practice: 17 Steps to Satisfying Your Internal and External Customers (Hardcover)

Unique in its perspective and insight, The Total Service Medical Practice offers an easy-to-read seventeen step method of critically analyzing service delivery in the ambulatory health care setting. Drawing on in-depth interviews with customers, physicians, practice managers, and communication experts, Vicky Bradford shares specific examples of what distinguishes the best practices and the best employees. Although the easy-to-read, comprehensive text easily can serve as a primer for effective communication in health care, the specific service examples, anecdotes, quotations, charts, and lists provide insight and ideas to even the most experienced practice administrator.

The organization of the text makes it useful as a reference tool for problem solving as well as an instructional tool for in-services. In a time when everyone declares himself to be a service expert, it is refreshing to read the perceptions and insights of patients, family members, physicians, and staff members presented side-by-side.

Resources in the text include insights into organizing a mentoring program for new employee orientation, guidelines on professional perceptions, informal and formal systems analysis, and managing the critical "moments of truth" with customers. Specific examples also are included of Focus Group Interview Questions, a Service-Quality Questionnaire, problem solving techniques, team composition, conflict management, collection / billing timetables, financial agreements, and developing personal service statements.

For the new health care employee or administrator, the text provides rich explanations of ambulatory health care settings, expectations, and terminology. For the seasoned professional, it provides gentle reminders and fresh ideas. This text not only is practical, it is practically indispensable.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Practical Tool for Practioners and Staff, February 22, 2000

By 

Charles Gaughan (U.S.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Total Service Medical Practice: 17 Steps to Satisfying Your Internal and External Customers (Hardcover)

The Total Service Medical Practice is a practical, easy- to-use roadmap for keeping focused on the customer! Definitely not just a book on theory, but a manual chocked-full of concrete examples on how to mobilize your team around identifying and enhancing the critical 'moments of truth' for your medical practice. Dr. Bradford provides us with numerous tools and take-aways from her experiences in the industry - a great read for providers, practice managers, and office staff.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Total Service Medical Practice...highly recommended, February 2, 2000

By 

Susan Miller, BHS, RN, CMPE (Lexington, Kentucky) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Total Service Medical Practice: 17 Steps to Satisfying Your Internal and External Customers (Hardcover)

As a medical group practice administrator, I am always looking for effective, easily implemented ideas for improving service to our patients. Dr. Bradford's book gives this type of information in a clear,logical approach. I purchased two copies of Dr. Bradford's book and they are on constant loan to my colleagues. I highly recommend The Total Service Medical Practice: 17 Steps to Satisfying Your Internal and External Customers to any medical practice that shares with us a renewed focus on providing the best in all aspects of our patients' care.