Concierge Services provides answers for patients and families
"We have three hours to kill. Any suggestions?"
"How do I find the Zakim Center?"
"Can you tell me about hotels in the area?"
These are some of the questions typically fielded by Dana-Farber's new Concierge Services. Launched in fall 2008, the service is designed to give adult and pediatric patients, as well as employees, information about the Institute and area resources — much the way a hotel concierge service works.
Located in the lobby of the Dana building, beyond the main front desk toward the adult infusion area, the program is staffed by trained volunteers led by Cynthia Medeiros, LICSW.
"We knew patients and families were stopping anybody asking for information, but people often didn't have the information to answer them thoroughly," says Medeiros, who is working closely with Director of Volunteer Services Thomas Edward, CAVS. "This is a one-stop place that can attend to their needs."
Currently open weekdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Concierge Services will be a model for an expanded program within the Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Center for Patients and Families in support of the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center. The Shapiro Center will be housed in the Yawkey Center for Cancer Care, Dana-Farber's new clinical building slated to open in 2011.
The concierge effort grew out of discussions by the Healing Environment Committee, which focuses on helping the Institute's physical plant better reflect the compassionate care given here.
A planning group spent about a year developing the idea; they interviewed patients and families and investigated other cancer centers that host similar services. Dana-Farber leadership agreed this was a vital offering, and some 10 volunteers were recruited, many of them seasoned Institute volunteers.
"We trained them this summer on the various resources here and in the community," says Edward. "The volunteers have also been taking self-guided tours throughout the Dana-Farber complex so they know how to better help patients find their way."
Among the trainees are Maggie Casey and Mary Ann Chase, who share the Thursday shift. Sitting behind the flower-festooned curved desk one recent morning, they directed people to the Dana 1A Specialty Clinic down the hall, helped a visitor needing a long-term hotel stay, and pointed patients with scheduled appointments to the nearby main reception desk.
To answer questions, Casey and Chase tapped several online tools, including the Internet, Dana-Farber's intranet, and the concierge's own database of everything from local dentists to car repair shops.
The concierge desk also maintains a supply of local maps, patient handbooks, support group listings, and information about classes and workshops for adult and pediatric patients and families. Some of the materials are available in both English and Spanish.
For Chase, this represents a new assignment in her 20-plus years of volunteering at Dana-Farber, many of them in the Friends' Corner Gift Shop. She is also on the board of the Friends of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
"This is a way to have more personal contact with patients," she says. "And I'm learning a lot."
For Casey, who has considerable experience in the hotel and restaurant industry, serving as a volunteer since January has been therapeutic. Her husband, Dick, was treated for carcinoma here, and after he died, Dana-Farber "was a comfortable place to be," she explains. "These were the only people I knew for a year. It's like Dick left me here."
Since it opened in September, Concierge Services has assisted about 100 people a week, and the numbers are growing. Its cache of information is expanding as more people discover the desk and often come back.
"We're giving information and getting information," says Medeiros, who relays the story of one man who asked where he could work out. He wound up returning with news about the Fitcorp gym on Avenue Louis Pasteur, which the volunteers are now sharing with others who stop by the desk.
— Debra Ruder
debra_ruder@dfci.harvard.edu
To reach the Concierge Services desk, please call (617) 632-3750.
