Moves at Sherbourne Improve Service for Clients, and Create a Smoother Work Environment for Medical Secretaries
We’re here to let you in on a little secret – the medical secretaries are the backbone of Sherbourne Health. They answer your calls, help with your referrals, triage care, offer a smiling face and reassurance for nervous clients, share important information, remind your care team of outstanding tasks, and do all of the administration required to get our clients the care they need and deserve.
In recent years, medical secretaries have also faced increasing job demands, along with safety concerns related to clients who may not be in a position to offer empathy or who misdirect their frustration with an overburdened health care system.
When looking at solutions that would help us to continually improve client service while ensuring medical secretaries felt safe and were freed up to focus on the most important part of their jobs, we knew that we had to make some changes. Vinita Shah, Manager, Health Information and Privacy Officer at Sherbourne Health supervises the medical secretaries and has understood their concerns. “We heard medical secretaries say they wanted to serve clients the best they can. Together, we came up with plans to change the space and dedicate different secretaries to different tasks,” she shared.
This change has included moving our primary reception towards the back of the first floor, to allow medical secretaries to focus on their work while ensuring our Client Engagement and Security Workers were our first line for questions about the centre and directions. Sherbourne opened the new reception on May 5, and Samantha Martin, medical secretary at Sherbourne Health, is already pleased with the change. “Before, we were always pulled in a million directions and we couldn’t always be as attentive to people as we wanted to be. It’s only been a few days but I’m already seeing a difference in how we are able to help people get what they need.”
Linda Jimas, another one of Sherbourne’s medical secretaries adds that “we are also able to work in greater physical proximity to each other. This means that we can problem solve quicker, and we’ve also got better safety in numbers.”
The next time you visit Sherbourne Health, you’ll now have more options for checking in. You can visit one of our medical secretaries on the main floor, just past the elevators or you can use one of our new self check-in kiosks around the centre – there are three to the left when you come in the front doors, one near the new main reception, and one on the second floor.
“What’s great about the self-check option is that people who feel comfortable using that also helps us provide better service,” Linda adds. “It means that we are able to spend more time with the people who need a bit more attention, and clients who use the self-check in can move through the process faster.”
We’d love to hear your thoughts on this change. Let us know by emailing feedback@sherbourne.on.ca, fill out one of the paper copies of the feedback forms found at the centre, or visit https://sherbourne.on.ca/feedback/ for more options.