Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has launched a new customer service initiative, aiming to provide a high level of customer satisfaction and a pleasant hospital experience to its patients and family members.

The initiative known as ‘At Your Service’, features customer relation assistants (CRAs) wearing blue jackets, sporting ‘May I help you’ slogans at DHA hospitals and health centres.

Essa Al Maidoor, director-general of the DHA recently inaugurated the initiative by wearing the blue jacket and taking a tour of the premises of Rashid Hospital with team members from the customer relations department.

“Our aim is to create successful medical outcomes and hospitable human experiences for our patients. Customer care and excellent medical services are not isolated concepts, they go hand-in-hand, and in future, customers will see many such initiatives aimed at making their hospital experience pleasant,” he said.

Al Maidoor added that 200 CRAs will be deployed across all DHA hospitals and health centres. Before the launch of the initiative, Al Maidoor addressed all the CRAs at a forum that was held at the Rashid Medical Library. He reiterated the importance of customer care and the need to deal with customers efficiently and compassionately.

Shaikha Al Rahoomi, director of Customer Relations Department at the DHA said: “All CRAs have already received training. They are bi-lingual; they speak English and Arabic, and can address queries on finance, administrative, insurance, location, billing and other such issues. On-site patient support is essential to make the hospital experience pleasant.”

“In the first phase, we will deploy CRAs across all hospitals, in the second phase we will extend this service across all our primary healthcare centres and medical fitness centres.

“All CRAs wear a blue jacket with the slogan, ‘May I help you.’ The idea was to establish their distinct identity and unify this concept across all DHA health facilities. The jacket and the slogan help patients and families identify CRAs.

“In addition to on-sight support, patients and families can send us their feedback or queries through the Wassel Sotak initiative, which is an online feedback platform. This way we ensure that patients have both on-sight help and an electronic feedback platform to reach us,” she added.

By the end of 2014, the DHA will also introduce initiatives such as the Customer Satisfaction Index, said Al Rahoomi.

“Before exiting the premises of DHA hospitals and primary health care centres, customers will be able to press the ‘happy’ or ‘unhappy’ button through an electronic interface, and the rating will appear on the screen in the form of red and green bars. The service empowers customers to express their opinion,” she added.

The DHA headquarters will have an interface where customer satisfaction can be viewed real time.

In addition to this initiative, the DHA also recently announced the deployment of 3000 Android Tablets across every patient bed and waiting areas of all hospitals and health centres, to provide customers with access to the Internet and health education apps, while they are waiting for their appointments. – TradeArabia News Service