Education, Income, Societal Worth

[wodehouse]

Taking thoughts from some recent threads about college, etc:

Personally, I'm well-educated and trained, and make a lot of dough but I'm also in a customer service position. I deal with a lot of nice people but also a lot of dumb idiots, and some real jerks. Supposedly all these people are well-educated but they often don't act like it or seem like it. One effect my job has had on me is to be much more appreciative and thoughtful of the folks in the front lines of customer service in stores, etc. (I was before but now doubly so). And I have always been appreciative of the folks who work hard "in the trenches"...working at the deli, the kitchen help, the dishwashers, the Mexican lawn crews, my garbage collectors, etc. It's only because of these folks freeing up the time of those in the upper levels (by not having to perform these necessary tasks themselves) that those at the top can make big salaries.

[dancinmama]

I've heard that garbage collectors make pretty good money?

[wodehouse]

They're worth it too ;D

ahh, maybe that's in New York City that they're highly paid, but probably not in the vast regions of the country.

[Deleted]

I worked as a waitress in a crappy restaurant one summer in HS. Bad hours, physically demanding, got paid peanuts and tipped less, and did have to deal occasionally with people who considered you their personal maid. It was an education and I'm always considerate of people who work hard for very little money. My own job seems cushy and overpaid by comparison.

[shanendoah]

I grew up in Reno. While it's not quite Vegas, the entire city really is a service based economy. At some point, everyone ends up working in customer service/the trenches in Reno. (It is also a shock then, what passes for customer service when you leave that environment.) I think it has made my cohort of friends very aware of how we treat the people in service positions. At the same time, it also makes us picky about what good customer service is because we come from a place that has a higher standard than most.
We don't short the waiter on the tip for the bad attitude of the hostess or even if the kithcen messes up our food. The tip is based on our service from the watier and bussers. We have also been known to seek out our busser and tip them seperately when we've had great busser service and bad waiter service.

Of course, what I remember most about my early customer service days is that my customers in the video rental store treated me with more respect than the patients did when I worked medical reception, even though my professional knowledge was much more valuable to the customer in the medical setting.

It is funny being on the management side of it, though. My admin is also the phone receptionist for our department. She regularly goes above and beyond in getting people who have mistakenly called our department to the right place. This should be fabulous, except that, in our business, it sometimes means she is still on the phone for parts of conversations that she has no business hearing, things that include HIPPA protected information, as she waits to make sure the person is with the right department. As her manager, I'm struggling with putting guidelines in place that allow her to provide exceptional customer service while protecting our members' privacy.

[illinicheme]

I always try to treat everyone with respect, unless they do something to demonstrate that they don't deserve it.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

My admin is also the phone receptionist for our department. She regularly goes above and beyond in getting people who have mistakenly called our department to the right place. This should be fabulous, except that, in our business, it sometimes means she is still on the phone for parts of conversations that she has no business hearing, things that include HIPPA protected information, as she waits to make sure the person is with the right department. As her manager, I'm struggling with putting guidelines in place that allow her to provide exceptional customer service while protecting our members' privacy.

I cannot BELIEVE what some people start sharing before I can even get in that they called the wrong number! I even say "DQ, College of Pharmacy Professor X's lab". How do you get from that that I am the Gyno office?

Some stuff you just cannot unhear.

I also worry about HIPPA sometimes. I'd have to look it up but I think I am protected when people call the wrong number and just start spouting random medical facts about themselves.

If people are understanding about it I try to help them find the right person/department.

I had one guy get really nasty about it and demand to know why I had this number. I told him to take it up with IT and here is their number because they are the ones that assigned it to me.

[formerexpat]

And I have always been appreciative of the folks who work hard "in the trenches"...working at the deli, the kitchen help, the dishwashers, the Mexican lawn crews, my garbage collectors, etc.

You can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat these people. If I go out to lunch for an interview with a person, I pay specific attention to the way they treat the wait staff. Sounds like a small thing but every company have those "in the trench" employees and treating them like dirt doesn't get the job done and doesn't say a lot about that person, in my opinion.

I'm as nice to the CFO & CEO as I am the person that empties my trash each night. Both deserve equal respect, regardless of their income...until they do something to show they don't deserve it, like Illinicheme said.

[formerexpat]

It's HIPAA guys, not HIPPA.

I don't think the situation that Shanendoah explains is a HIPAA violation. Transferring a phone call and accidentally hearing the beginning of a conversation before hanging up is not a violation.

[Deleted]

People really will share the craziest things about themselves on the phone. I used to work in a health prevention program - everyone was an educator, no one was a clinician - but people would share the most intimate details of their medical history with whoever answered the phone. (Even in clinical services, the person who initially answers the phone is rarely a clinician) It was sad how desperate people were for someone to hear them and answer their questions.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

It's HIPAA guys, not HIPPA



I only see it spelled out once during yearly training. My bad.

[wvugurl26]

As long as the secretary knows to forget whatever she heard and don't go blabbing is it really a problem? I mean someone calls up and starts spouting off, not like she opened a chart or coaxed the information out of them.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I mean someone calls up and starts spouting off, not like she opened a chart or coaxed the information out of them.

Exactly. Now the girl from patient records who kept trying to give me information without verifying who I was could get in trouble (that was an interesting phone call), but I can't get in trouble if someone decides to share their own personal medical information with me before confirming they got the right number.

I just wish I didn't have to hear it.

[pig]

The 3 are not really related to one another.

[Deleted]

I've worked enough service level jobs to know to appreciate the workers at the bottom of the rung.

[shanendoah]

When HIPAA first came out, we mistakenly called it the Health Information Protection and Portability Act in the medical office I worked in. Ever since then, even though I have to worry about its implications every day, I never get the acronym right. Or, I get it right and then second guess myself, which is what I did today.

The problem is is that my admin isn't accidentally hearing anything. She is specifically staying on the line (to assure the caller gets the information they need) while social security numbers, billing information, and health information is discussed. The caller may or may not remember that she is still on the line. This is information that she does not have access to because her job doesn't require it, and so, it could conceivably be a HIPAA violation. I do my best to half listen and when it seems that the caller won't be transferred anymore, encourage her to get off the line.
And no, she's not blabbing, but these people aren't spouting off, they're talking to who they're supposed to be talking to. It is not appropriate for a third party, who has no business or personal reason to know this information, to still be on the phone, especially since our work in no way touches on the member/patient. We deal specifically with the providers.
Because we are a managed care organization, we are regulated both as an insurance company and a health care provider. It means that actions that no one would even think about in another company are regulatory violations in ours. (If someone is out giving birth, or having a hospital stay, because we are their health care provider/insurer as well as their employer, we are not allowed, without specific permission from the person, to share any information other than to say they are out "sick" or possibly for "medical reasons". Some argue that we shouldn't be able to say anything other than that they are out.)

[wvugurl26]

I'm confused as hell now. So she transfers them to Mrs Jones and stays on the line while she starts talking to Mrs Jones?

[shanendoah]

But I hadn't really meant to turn this thread in to a discussion of what is and isn't a HIPAA violation. It was meant more to be a comment about the difficulty maintaining excellent customer service without putting yourself (or your company) in danger of regulatory violations. That concern is often why people get sub-standard customer service from major health care or financial institutions and then get shuttled from one department to the next.

[shanendoah]

wvu: Yes, she transfers them to the department and stays on the line to make sure its the right department. Because sometimes customer service (the place we think they need to go) is not where they need to go. They need to talk to patient financial services or some such. So she stays on the line to make sure they're talking to the right person.
I understand and appreciate the impulse, though personally I feel that all patient/member issues should be directed to customer service and that it is then customer service's job to make sure they get to the right department. Still, I know some of our members really hate the being shuttled around, so I appreciate her impulse. As her manager, I need to find the appropriate balance between excellent customer service (which she is trying to provide) and opening ourselves up to regulatory violations. It's not always an easy balance to achieve.