Uniforms present professional image
Dress code can be expensive to maintain
Are uniforms a good idea for access services personnel? Hospital Access Management posed the question to several access managers, who say it depends on what the staff want, what the budget (usually the employees’) allows, and what’s appropriate in a particular hospital culture.
Uniforms have been used by admitting and registration staff at East Jefferson General Hospital in Metairie, LA, for so long that they’re a way of life, says Catherine Makofsky, quality control coordinator for the patient access department.
Admitting personnel have worn uniforms purchased from Prestige Business Fashions in Marlin, TX, for close to 20 years, and outpatient and emergency registration for around 15 years, she estimates. Because admitting was wearing one style and color and registration another, when the two areas combined recently, the newly formed patient access department made another selection, Makofsky says.
Access employees are required to wear skirts or slacks in navy or navy tweed, and one of five shirt choices. They have the option of adding a jacket, vest, or sweater. The basic uniform of skirt or slacks and shirt is "under $100," she says. The cost is tax-deductible, Makofsky points out, and if the employee wishes, can be paid for through payroll deduction.
The payroll deduction option is popular with employees, she says, as is a "very flexible" ordering policy. "We got our first order for the new uniform in October, started wearing them in November, and already have placed another order," Makofsky says, which enables employees to gradually add pieces as they can afford them. "That’s important when someone’s paying for their own."
The uniforms present a "neat and professional image" that gets a positive reaction from patients and avoids the vagaries of personal style, she notes. "With different tastes, what some think is professional is not what others think. Our employees are very professionally dressed."
Uniforms can help with bill collecting because of the businesslike image they project, and they can make it more clear which employees patients should ask for help, suggests Miki Pfeffer, sales representative for Prestige. She says larger hospital chains are less likely to use uniforms than are community hospitals, perhaps because it’s such a huge undertaking.
For hospitals that do choose uniforms, it’s often an executive decision rather than a staff option, and staff sometimes are resistant at first, she says. "These clothes cost more than those [the employees] would normally buy, but they are all washable and wear well. Once they begin to use them, they love it, because it simplifies their lives."
Other hospitals haven’t had as much success with uniforms as Jefferson General. At Louisiana State University Medical Center in Shreveport, employees approached admissions manager Betty Bamonte, CHAM, about three years ago and said they wanted to wear uniforms. "They really wanted to change their image," she recalls. Bamonte told them to go for it, but that they would have to handle the process themselves.
After looking into ordering "career wear" from an apparel company and deeming it too expensive, staff set guidelines and put together their own outfits. They wrote a policy requiring black pants or skirt, black shoes, and a different color shirt or blouse for each day of the week, Bamonte says. "We had dress-down’ day on Friday, when they could wear whatever they wanted."
Although she can’t explain why, Bamonte says wearing the "uniforms" seemed to raise staff morale. It also made a good impression on customers and elicited favorable comments from the rest of the staff. But after about two years, the practice of wearing uniforms gradually stopped.
"It went real well, and I don’t really know why they stopped wearing them," Bamonte says. "As the employees who started it left, the new ones coming in were not as interested."
Beaufort (SC) Memorial Hospital had a much shorter-lived uniform experience when its patient accounting staff decided to dress alike, says Tammy Cieplowski, admitting manager. Staff chose apparel from a local department store and agreed to wear the same-style blue blazer or sweater, blue pants or skirt, and white blouse. "They tried it for about a month, it went well, and then everybody quit wearing it," she adds. "They got tired of it; they liked the freedom of choice."
Cieplowski says her emergency registration staff have proposed wearing a certain color of hospital scrubs as a kind of uniform, primarily to be more comfortable, but she vetoed the idea as potentially confusing to patients. "It looks too much like what nurses wear, and people come to you for medical help. I also have a problem with environmental services staff wearing [scrubs]."
Similarly, when her staff would pick up a white or blue hospital-style jacket to wear over their normal clothing, "I’d tell them to take them off, they looked like lab techs," she adds. As for uniforms of office apparel, she says, "I think it would be a good idea, but they need to make their own choice. If 90% of them want it, fine."
[Editor’s note: Please share your experiences with uniforms with Hospital Access Management. Were they a good idea or a big mistake? Call editor Lila Moore at (404) 636-9264 or associate managing editor Hannah Kamenetsky at (404) 262-5509. E-mail: [email protected] or hannah_kamenetsky@ medec.com. Or fax to (404) 261-3964.]
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