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BUSINESS REVIEW
SERVICE EXCELLENCE – THE KPJ WAY
137
Our Commitment to Customer Service
Excellence
To distinguish ourselves from other
hospitals, we continue to implement a
service excellence initiative that advocates
the development of a service excellence
culture within KPJ. The Service Excellence
– The KPJ Way (SE – KPJ Way) initiative
involves the adoption and smooth execution
of core customer-centric procedures and
processes throughout our hospitals and the
delivery of a high level of professional and
compassionate care. It underscores KPJ’s
genuine commitment to ensuring a delightful
customer experience by consistently touching
our patients’ hearts across all touch-points,
beyond entry to exit, and is helping us build
strong customer loyalty.
The Call to Distinguish Ourselves
The SE - KPJ Way initiative has its roots in
a cultural transformation that has been in
place among our workforce since 2006 when
we decided we would distinguish ourselves
through a strong focus on the quality of our
hospitality and service. To ensure consistently
high standards across all our hospitals,
we rolled out the Service Excellence – KPJ
Way Standard People Practice (SPP) and
Service Excellence – Group Alignment and
Re-Engineering (SEGAR) initiatives.While the
former initiative involves taking employee
behaviour up to new levels of excellence,
the latter involves taking our processes and
support up several notches.
The Standard People Practice (SPP) initiative
calls for a minimum and consistent standard
of service throughout our hospitals. With an
emphasis on empathy, communication and
compassionate care, it advocates that our
people go the extra mile to touch the hearts
of patients throughout their total hospital
experience, from entry to exit, by delivering
services that are consistent and beyond
expectations.
The SEGAR initiative involves the realignment
of core hospital processes. It outlines standard
operating procedures, guidelines and policies
that ensure the delivery of consistently high
standards of customer service in line with
international standards. It calls for all KPJ
employees to embrace a higher standard
of care by anticipating patient needs and
delivering services in a professional, genuine
and truly compassionate manner.
The Results Thus Far
Currently, 10 of the Group’s 22 hospitals
are participating fully in the SE – KPJ Way
initiative while others are to follow suit in due
course. The year under review saw all these
10 hospitals registering a commendable
upward trend in their customer satisfaction
index (CSI) – with some registering between
a 200% to 300% increase in their respective
CSIs. This encouraging feedback reflects that
KPJ’s customers are very pleased with the
services rendered by caregivers at the various
touch points within our hospitals.
As testament to the strong service excellence
culture prevalent within the Group, the JCI-
accredited KPJ Ampang Puteri Specialist
Hospital was declared a winner of the 2012
Malaysia Service to CareAward in the Hospital
category. This annual award from Mark Plus
Insight was given in conjunction with the
Philip Kotler Centre for ASEAN Marketing and
the Christopher Lovelock Centre for Services
Marketing. It recognises the best performers
and best practices in customer service and
customercare in the ASEAN region. The
winners for 2012’s award were based on the
criteria of credibility, dependability, courtesy,
comfort and connectivity.
On-going Efforts
As part of the on-going efforts to enhance
the service excellence culture within the
10 hospitals fully participating in the Total
Patients Experience (TPE) initiative, their
hospital staff continue to be coached, trained
and retrained to instil within them a passion
to serve. At the same time, staff adherence to
displaying good customer service behaviour
is being tracked while campaigns and
promotions are being undertaken to support
the assimilation of service excellence.
Plans are also underway to implement SPP
tools at all of the Group’s other hospitals
as well as establish a team of in-housed
trainers to support SPP implementation.
As the levels of service excellence improve,
more value added service delivery processes
will be incorporated. Continuous training and
education will be prioritised to ensure the
momentum of these efforts is maintained. To
ensure adherence, the heads of the respective
services will monitor and track staff progress
while a mystery shopper element will also be
incorporated.
Recognised for Safe Care and
Excellent Services
The Group’s ultimate goal is to provide our
customers with safe care and excellent
services and this is reflected in the
recognition our hospitals have received
from accreditation bodies such as the
Malaysian Society of Quality in Health
(MSQH) and Joint Commission International
(JCI). Moreover, KPJ’s hospitals continue to
obtain certifications such as the Integrated
Management System or IMS certification
(which also includes Occupational Safety
and Health and Environmental Management
System elements), as well as ISO and SIRIM
certifications. All these underscore the
Group’s commitment to adopting best-in-
class quality systems and processes.
To date, 12 KPJ hospitals have been
accredited by the MSQH with several
scheduled to undergo their latest
accreditation cycles in 2013. In the area
of JCI accreditation, both the KPJ Ampang
Puteri Specialist Hospital and KPJ Seremban
Specialist Hospital received their full three-
year JCI accreditation in 2012, while KPJ
Johor Specialist Hospital and KPJ Penang
Specialist Hospital will undergo the JCI
accreditation process in 2013.
To ensure strict compliance with regulatory
requirements as well as adherence to
international best practices, clinical conduct
at all our hospitals is governed by the Group’s
clinical policies and procedures, while the
Medical Advisory Committee and other
clinical committees have oversight of all
relevant processes. The Group also abides
by the policies and practices outlined in the
Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act
1998 and other regulations spelt out by the
Ministry of Health. Moreover, via exposure
to continuous learning at KPJ Healthcare
University College, our staff are able to uphold
high quality standards and a strong service
excellence culture.
Annual Report
2012
KPJ Healthcare Berhad