From the soaring costs of healthcare delivery, to patient demand for more and better services, to ever-shrinking budgets, healthcare providers are constantly forced to find new and innovative ways to deliver quality care, meet regulations, and increase patient satisfaction — all while reducing costs. 

North Florida Regional Medical Center is a 400+ bed, full=service medical and surgical acute care center that offers comprehensive care — from patient education to disease/illness prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation.

Since opening its doors in 1973, North Florida Regional Medical Center has been committed to fostering care, compassion, and kindness within the community, as well as providing exceptional quality healthcare services. This dedication has led them to continually receive the highest marks for hospital safety from industry organizations, as well as be recognized eight times as one of the 100 Top Hospitals. North Florida Regional Medical Center is a member of the HCA health system, the nation’s leading provider of healthcare services. 

Challenge

The healthcare landscape is extremely challenging to navigate these days. From the soaring costs of healthcare delivery, to patient demand for more and better services, to ever-shrinking budgets, healthcare providers are constantly forced to find new and innovative ways to deliver quality care, meet regulations, and increase patient satisfaction — all while reducing costs.

On top of this, patients have more choices than ever before.

They have become “healthcare consumers” who expect convenience and high quality, personalized service. Enhancing the total patient experience has become critical to attracting and maintaining patients, improving HCAHPS scores, and ultimately increasing revenue for healthcare providers.

To help do more with less, North Florida Regional Medical Center outsources with ABM Healthcare Support Services. Originally, ABM provided just valet parking services for the center. Over the years, ABM’s role at the facility has expanded and now includes support services designed to meet the varied guest services needs of the hospital.

Because of its large presence at North Florida Regional Medical Center, ABM is often the one to identify and report potential issues. Most recently, ABM noticed security personnel were being used to help patients find their way around the hospital, and even sit with patients.

However, North Florida Regional Medical Center’s us of highly-trained, high-value full-time security resources was inefficient and expensive. North Florida Regional Medical

Center needed a partner to handle these guest service responsibilities so security personnel could focus solely on securing the hospital. 

Solution

North Florida Regional Medical Center turned to ABM Healthcare Support Services to tailor a guest services program to meet the center’s needs. Using years of Healthcare support services experience, ABM immediately implemented a highly trained concierge staff, relieving NFRMC’s security staff from having to perform the work.

Those concierge service workers are now on-hand to assist patients and visitors with their requests such as providing escort to hospital destinations, delivering gifts and flowers to patient rooms, arranging transportation, assisting with hotel reservations, and other personal tasks.

ABM employees receive continuous, best-practice training using the company’s own concierge service workshop developed specifically for patient/guest services. In addition to teaching basic policy enforcement and observance of both HIPAA and Joint Commission standards, a rigorous, five-segment series workshop was designed to teach and reinforce renowned service concepts and key ideas — including specific language and scripts — that take the mystery out of providing the highest level of service to every patient every time.

In addition to added concierge services, ABM’ services for NFRMC over the years included:

· Valet Parking –Valets welcome patients and guests, help people in and out of their cars, assist with their belongings, give directions, monitor parking lot safety, and even rush ailing patients to the ER

· Shuttles – Employee and visitor shuttles provide efficient and reliable transportation to and from satellite parking locations. Shuttle drivers are courteous and helpful

· Parking Management – ABM leverages the latest technology to optimize parking operations, implement cost control measures, and increase revenues – all while enhancing customer service

· Front Door Services – Highly-trained greeters warmly welcome every patient and visitor as they enter and leave the facility, and provide them with any other information they request. They verify physician appointments and perform other time-consuming front desk duties

· Care Path Wayfinders – Way finders help patients and navigate through the ER, guide them to elevators, and provide them with any other needed directions

· Couriers – Couriers deliver supplies, prescriptions, and other items as needed between departments and buildings

· Patient Sitters – Trained patient observation attendants ensure visual and audible observation of patients. Patient sitters are there to monitor patients, help immobile and incapacitated patients, and more

· Patient Transportation Dispatchers – Patients today receive care from several healthcare practitioners while in the facility. North Florida Regional Medical Center uses a live, centralized dispatcher to ensure patients experience efficient point-to-point transfers, get to their rooms and procedures on time, as well as check-in and check-out of their rooms as quickly as possible

ABM offers a single point of contact for managing all these services and resources, alleviating North Florida Regional Medical Center staff of the headaches of dealing with different vendors; increasing communication, responsiveness, and visibility; and offering financial and resource economies of scale that help drive down operational costs.

Benefits

With guest services being handled end-to-end by ABM, North Florida Regional Medical Center is able to focus on its core competency — providing award-winning healthcare to patients. The time-saving concierge services have helped ensure that not only are patients interacting with a highly trained concierge staff to address needs, but hospital security personnel are now able to spend more time patrolling instead of greeting and sitting with patients. The combined changes have resulted in: 

· Increased efficiency and performance

· A reduction in FTE expenses

· Enhanced customer service

In addition, through the years, North Florida Regional Medical Center has also experienced a host of other benefits including:

· Consistently higher HCAHPS survey scores.

· Improved bed throughput and discharge process and reduced patient wait times

· Improved high revenue department efficiency

· Compliance with standards and best practice

· Enhanced cost savings

About ABM Healthcare Support Services

ABM Healthcare Support Services joins together three healthcare services leaders — HHA Services, Healthcare Parking Systems of America (HPSA) and ABM Health to provide each of the services needed to support healthcare’s entire ecosystem—from hospitals to ambulatory surgical centers and medical office buildings. Services provided include clinical engineering & healthcare technologies, environmental services, facility management, food service, hospitality, parking, patient observation & transportation, and security.