Having a heart for patients

Star: PUTRAJAYA: It may be a simple logo depicting a hand on a heart, but it means a lot to Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.
It symbolises the care he wants his staff to have for their patients.
Ministry staff began wearing the badge from Monday when the Corporate Culture Campaign was launched.
“The heart on the hand shows that we are caring and can make our patients feel comfortable with us. It is a very simple badge but carries a lot of meaning,” Liow said recently.
He said the campaign was necessary as while the staff knew of the corporate culture value system when they underwent orientation, they did not practise it enough.
“We appreciate their contributions but we want to make it better,’’ he added.
The revamp also includes a motto “We Are Here For You”, an initiative to ensure that healthcare services are delivered to the people as a team in a cheerful, sincere, caring and professional way.
There are also three core values involved - caring, professionalism and teamwork.
“What I want is to translate all these corporate values into action. By having this motto all over the place, it not only reminds the people of it, but ourselves too,” Liow said.
The minister said a mere smile provided important boost to patients, adding that “it has a healing effect and can motivate patients”.
Liow said staff would be evaluated every three months to ensure the campaign worked.
The minister has begun to get things going, visiting several states to check on the key performance index of employees to determine if they were performing up to mark.
Liow added that the public’s feedback in an international survey found that overall patient satisfaction was good at about 90%, with the caring criteria scoring 40%, professionalism (60%) and teamwork (70%).