Shouldice Hospital Case Study

Shouldice Hospital Limited Case Study

Shouldice Hospital offers a unique view on the customer experience in that the customer is also an integral part of the hospital staff. When new patients are brought to Shouldice, the current patients at the hospital serve as counselors, telling these new patients what to expect from the facility as well as recalling their personal experience at the hospital. These talks between the old and new patients can help assuage some of the fears that the new patients might have before going into the operations, thus improving the overall service quality by lowering the anxiety of the new patients. Post-operation, recovering patients help improve service quality by talking with other patients. By having people to talk to, recovering patients don’t feel as bored in the hospital and feel more at home in the current environment. An important part to reducing surgery anxiety is to make the patient comfortable in his current environment, and the patients play a big part in creating a comfortable environment to stay in.

Since the patients at Shouldice play an integral part in maintaining a friendly environment, the hospital tries to create a servicescape that allows these patients to interact with each other. One way Shouldice does this is by making mandatory meetings between patients so that customers have to interact with each other. When a new patient arrives at the hospital the day before the operation, he has the chance to attend dinner and have tea with other patients at the hospital. Patients and staff are served food at the same kitchen so that everyone has a chance to chat with each other. The patient rooms are that comfortable to stay in, as there is no TV or telephones and the bedsheets are not changed during the patient’s stay in the hospital. As a result, the patient is almost forced to go a recreation or common room and interact with other people. The design of the hospital also makes it enjoyable to take strolls outside of...