If Disney Ran Your Hospital: 9 1/2 Things You Would Do Differently Paperback – January 1, 2004

Fred Lee does an excellent job of rethinking what “customer service” really means in the healthcare setting. Drawing from his own experience with Disney and as a senior hospital executive, he highlights how both hospitals and theme parks ultimately provide an experience, not just a service.I appreciated the way he broke down why many standard hospital service initiatives fall short, and how true patient satisfaction comes from culture, consistency, and human connection rather than checklists. The “9 ½ principles” he outlines are practical, memorable, and applicable not just to healthcare leaders, but to anyone working in patient care who wants to build trust and loyalty.Pros:Clear, relatable examples from Disney and healthcareChallenges common assumptions about service excellencePractical principles that can be applied in real-world settingsInspiring perspective for leaders, clinicians, and staff alikeCons:Some examples lean more toward leadership-level challenges rather than front-line staff issuesBest suited for those interested in healthcare administration and culture changeThis book is an engaging and thoughtful read that reframes patient care through the lens of experience. If you’re looking for new ways to inspire staff, improve patient satisfaction, and create a lasting culture of excellence, Fred Lee provides both the vision and the tools to get there.

Fantastic read. Bought this for my book-club at work and it has been very good so far. There is a lot of great advice that really relates to my hospital setting and how we can improve. The book will leave you yearning to work at Disney or to make your hospital the same way. We just need more visionary leaders in the C-suites across America though. Without leaders who will utilize and implement this way of thinking, it is just a dream.

This is a great book for anyone in a service industry to read. It's thought provoking and clearly organized with a number of illustrative examples and stories. The writing is by no means literary, but it is not poorly written. It has real substance which sets it apart from many similar books. Although the vignette in each chapter are helpful, at times they are verbose and so numerous as to obscure the central teaching of any given chapter. The book would be better if the "human interest stories" were cut back significantly.The substance/rules/"things" are really tools for thinking about the problems you face when running a hospital and striving for service excellence, rather than implementable solutions to those problems. This is both the book's greatest strength and greatest weakness. The author closes by cautioning readers not to fall into the "great ideas but how do I implement them" trap. This is sophomoric. Although no reasonable reader will expect tailor made solutions, trimming the gratuitous congratulatory mentions of various nurse managers and spending more time on the details underlying their success would have been helpful.Bottom Line: Good use of money and time, would recommend.Cliff Notes:- What people believe is more important than the truth- Organize around courtesy not efficiency- You want loyal patients (5/5) not satisfied (>3/5) patients- Experience is king, A fancy coffee shop can sell a cup of coffee for more than a dinner and more than the cost of raw materials- Find people who intrinsically want to do well and tap into that desire. You can't use extrinsic motivate to make them care.- Habits are the best intrinsic motivation, imagination and willpower of less effective, compliance is least effective.

I've worked in healthcare facilities for over 25 years, and was interested in Fred Lee's take on what can be done to improve service. If Disney ran your hospital, it would look a lot friendlier, respond to your needs immediately, and it would keep you safer and healthier. The strengths of Fred Lee's easy to read book, in my opinion, are:it speaks in plain English, not healthcare/management jargonincludes many fine stories, that reflect real life in healthcare facilitiesproposes things that people could actually be doingaims right at middle management, the biggest obstacle in healthcareIt costs nothing to show courtesy, to smile, to make the customer more important than the "policy." Unfortunately, the recent recession has made healthcare management behave even worse, because people are in such fear of losing their jobs. Sad, but true.

This book…. I had to read many part several times because it is so relevant to what I do every day that my mind would wander… ‘how I can use this insight to help my teammates be even more amazing?!’ I’d continue to read, but be thinking about how this person would absolutely respond well to this!!! Or how another shows this exact thing being discussed…And then would have to go back and read again… because I was focused on my thoughts about how to use what I had just read… rather than what I was currently reading.I will read it again… and will probably read it a third time and take notes - because there is so much relatable insight to every day work in a hospital. This rejuvenated me and will hopefully help me rejuvenate my team - because they are amazing and the past two years have redefined the word “busy day” to anyone who works in a hospital. I NEEDED this book!

I "read" the audio version... very well done. Well written, just the right mix of theory and stories, and for the audio version, the reader was excellent.And I find this book hopeful... as a physician with 30+ years in medicine, I have a grave fear of the time when I become a ward of the medical-industrial complex. In general, it is not patient-centric, nor in some cases, imbued with much common sense. This is a sad reality. This book won't fix all that ails us, but the ideas presented, and the spirit contained therein, are a great start.Highly recommend!