If Disney Ran Your Hospital: 9 1/2 Things You Would Do Differently

I've worked in healthcare facilities for over 25 years, and was interested in Fred Lee's take on what can be done to improve service. If Disney ran your hospital, it would look a lot friendlier, respond to your needs immediately, and it would keep you safer and healthier. The strengths of Fred Lee's easy to read book, in my opinion, are:it speaks in plain English, not healthcare/management jargonincludes many fine stories, that reflect real life in healthcare facilitiesproposes things that people could actually be doingaims right at middle management, the biggest obstacle in healthcareIt costs nothing to show courtesy, to smile, to make the customer more important than the "policy." Unfortunately, the recent recession has made healthcare management behave even worse, because people are in such fear of losing their jobs. Sad, but true.

I think everyone can gain something by reading this excellent book by a an exquisitely compassionate writer, Fred Lee. I don't have anything to do with hospitals, and I think this is genuinely going to help me in my own workplace. It's all about seeing things in a new, better light. I'm so glad I stumbled upon this little gem. It's concise. It doesn't overwhelm. It's common bloody sense. Wish more people would read this.As to why I gave this 5 stars? Well, anyone who has read this book throughly will know why...

This is a great book for anyone in a service industry to read. It's thought provoking and clearly organized with a number of illustrative examples and stories. The writing is by no means literary, but it is not poorly written. It has real substance which sets it apart from many similar books. Although the vignette in each chapter are helpful, at times they are verbose and so numerous as to obscure the central teaching of any given chapter. The book would be better if the "human interest stories" were cut back significantly.The substance/rules/"things" are really tools for thinking about the problems you face when running a hospital and striving for service excellence, rather than implementable solutions to those problems. This is both the book's greatest strength and greatest weakness. The author closes by cautioning readers not to fall into the "great ideas but how do I implement them" trap. This is sophomoric. Although no reasonable reader will expect tailor made solutions, trimming the gratuitous congratulatory mentions of various nurse managers and spending more time on the details underlying their success would have been helpful.Bottom Line: Good use of money and time, would recommend.Cliff Notes:- What people believe is more important than the truth- Organize around courtesy not efficiency- You want loyal patients (5/5) not satisfied (>3/5) patients- Experience is king, A fancy coffee shop can sell a cup of coffee for more than a dinner and more than the cost of raw materials- Find people who intrinsically want to do well and tap into that desire. You can't use extrinsic motivate to make them care.- Habits are the best intrinsic motivation, imagination and willpower of less effective, compliance is least effective.

"But I'm not in the hospital business." Neither am I. But I am a Disney Institute alumnus and an avid practitioner of the Disney Approach to People Management, Quality Service, and Loyalty; and I've found "If Disney Ran Your Hospital" more helpful than anything else in print. I think you will, too. Here's why. A number of books explain the principles and practices that drive Disney. Most are helpful, and one, "Be Our Guest" by the Disney Institute, is indispensable. But Fred Lee does one thing better than anyone else: he models how to transfer those principles to another industry. That's what he did at the Disney Institute and that's what he will help you do in your business. Granted, his applications come from healthcare. But along the way Fred Lee demonstrates how to translate and apply the Disney Approach outside of the Disney setting, and that's what's so helpful--he provides an example that the rest of us can follow. If you're interested in benchmarking the Disney Approach, you need this book. One more thing: Fred Lee can write. "If Disney Ran Your Hospital" is the best book on the Disney Approach...period.

Ok. Let us consider it realistically and professionally. Nothing to say about the book more than what all others have said. Simply great. However, enjoying a book is not, and will never be, a goal in itself. What matters is what benefit you can get out of IMPLEMENTING what is in it.In our case, this can be done on two conditions. The first and simple one is that everyone (I mean it) in your hospital should read and understand the book (this includes housekeepers, security guards, gardeners, ..etc).Now comes the second and difficult condition, that is creating a culture, a working environment, an atmosphere that adopts and supports the values and ideas in the book. Unfortunately, at least to me, this seems impossible.I am not saying that culture change or improvement is impossible. Go ahead. Do your best. We all should. I am trying to point out that trying to implement what is in the book will lead you to find out that you actually are trying to create "the city of virtues". No one could. No one will ever be able to.A wise management professional once said: "in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is!".Read this book at any cost. Buy it, borrow it, or even steal it!