UIHC brings Disney trainers to campus this week

IOWA CITY - University of Iowa Health Care will bring two trainers from the Disney Institute to campus this week to discuss customer service with about 200 UI Health Care employees.

The two-day training, at a cost of about $13,000, is part of the service excellence initiative to improve the patient and customer experience at UI Hospitals and Clinics, officials said.

Whether UI Health Care will still send a group to Florida to take part in Disney Institute training on site is unknown, said Gordon Williams, chief of operations for UI Health Care. That plan drew some complaints last fall when it was announced. Officials at that time said they hoped to send workers for the training this spring, at a cost of about $130,000.

Instead, the Service and Operational Excellence Council of UI Health Care made the decision to bring two Disney trainers to Iowa City today and Thursday as a sort of test drive, Williams said Tuesday. They will participate in working sessions and discuss ideas for improving the patient arrival experience - the first area the council is studying.

Afterward, the council will discuss if there should be more involvement with Disney, or if hospital staff should be sent to Florida.

“Maybe this will be good enough ... or maybe it would be helpful to send some folks down there,” Williams said. “We haven't decided that at all yet.”

The creation of the Service and Operational Excellence Council was an effort to have broader, more grass-roots participation in the service improvement efforts, Williams said. The group has met twice monthly since forming in December.

“The thing about really making a change in culture, you absolutely have to change the culture. This cannot be the fad of the month,” he said.

The Disney trainers will talk about the service models used at Celebration Health, the Disney-owned hospital in Florida. Disney is known for its customer service, and UI Health Care leaders have said Disney's corporate training model seems the best fit for the hospital.