TURNING LEMONS INTO LEMONADE

Last year's Med Inn closures resulted in better service for all

Alfreda Rooks Jordan (left) and Carly Noland (right) created a new way to accommodate more families with improved services.

It’s no secret the Health System has experienced high occupancy for years. By August 2005 leadership had to take a hard look at how to add beds since new facilities wouldn’t come online for at least two years.

That’s when Alfreda Rooks Jordan, Community Health Services, and Carly Noland, general manager of the Med Inn, received their assignment: Take 55 of the 85 Med Inn hotel rooms offline, then create a way to accommodate the hundreds of potentially displaced guests who will need lodging in the future—all by Jan. 1, four months away.

“It wasn’t simply closing rooms down for renovations. It was reinventing our partnership with our vendor, Select Hotel Management, and contracting with community hotels to meet the needs of our patients and families,” Rooks Jordan explains.

In addition, the Health System and Select Hotel Management dedicated two Med Inn staff members to coordinate hotel accommodations for callers, resulting in the creation of the Patient and Visitor Accommodations Program.

Paula Lenneman, reservation specialist, connects patients’ families to contracted area hotels that offer reduced rates and availability during even the busiest of football weekends.

“You can think of it like a travel agency,” Noland says. “Though we’ve contracted for reduced rates with 14 local hotels, we can make reservations for patients in any hotel in the area, according to their needs and preferences.”

Rooks Jordan says the outcome is even better than expected. “We’re not only providing better service to those who call, we’re actually able to accommodate a greater number of patients and families than in the past.”

In the first month, the program handled 116 bookings. In October 2006 the monthly rate swelled to nearly 650.

The 30 remaining Med Inn rooms are reserved for families with loved ones in the ICU, seniors and those with special needs. In addition to reduced rates, member hotels accommodate reservations on hard-to-fill dates such as football weekends — an historic impossibility.

Depending on the hotel, guests receive free shuttle service to and from the Medical Center and free continental breakfast.

Learn more about the Patient and Visitor Accommodations Program.