The UMC Utrecht is like a clock: the activities continue 24 hours a day and that is only possible when the parts of the cogwheel mesh exactly together. We will highlight a few of them in a summer series. This time: the operators. One of them is Hanneke Velten. “Sometimes a caller is emotional or difficult to get out of his words. Then it is extra important to listen carefully, so that I can eventually put the other person through to the right employee in the hospital.”
Hanneke Velten (23) has a trusted voice for many patients, relatives and doctors. She has been one of the twenty telephone operators at UMC Utrecht for a year and a half. She used to work 16 hours a week, but now 24 or 32. “I’m really enjoying it. That is why I now often work four or five days a week.”
Get to know
Until recently, Hanneke was a student. In July she obtained her master’s degree in Communication, Policy and Management at Utrecht University. “During my student days I always had a part-time job. For example, I was a sales employee at Rituals for over two years. At a certain point I felt the need for a more administrative job, preferably in healthcare. I heard through an employment agency that the UMC Utrecht was looking for telephone operators. A great opportunity. It seemed fascinating to me to get to know employees and departments in such a large, socially important organization. How does that all work?”
Different dynamics
Sometimes a switchboard operator works from seven in the morning until three in the afternoon. The other time the service lasts from three in the afternoon until eleven in the evening. At night, callers get a security guard or security officer on the line. Hanneke: “Telephony in the evenings has a different dynamic than during the day. That makes our work varied.”
Hash nine
She explains: “During the day, our activities largely boil down to the same thing. A patient calls to make an appointment with an outpatient clinic, after which I transfer. Or a doctor from our hospital or another hospital asks to get in touch with one of our medical specialists. Internal doctors only need number nine key in if they need the telephone exchange.” Laughing: “Sometimes when I pick up the phone, a doctor says: Do I have number nine on the line?”
Extra dimension
After five o’clock in the afternoon the contacts on the telephone often take on an extra dimension. Hanneke: “Then the outpatient clinics are closed and you have to do more as a telephone operator ask out to assess the seriousness and nature of a situation.”
To comfort
She gives an example: “Suppose parents call because they are concerned about their child’s health. During the day I would transfer them to the outpatient clinic, where care providers, such as medical specialists, are present. Now more of my judgment is required. Let it be clear: I am not a doctor and have no medical responsibility. But if I hear that the child only has a scrape, I can reassure the parents and advise to go to the doctor tomorrow. For a scrape, I don’t ask a surgeon to leave the operating room and call the parents. But if I only have the slightest suspicion that emergency care is needed, I ask the doctor on duty to contact the caller.”
Balance
A telephone operator tries to empathize with everyone’s situation and should be able to listen well and be calm. Especially in the evenings. Hanneke: “If someone really needs care quickly, that must also be arranged quickly. But I don’t want to disturb a doctor unnecessarily. I try to find the balance between them. Often it is also a matter of providing information. An example: some people have not lived in the Netherlands for very long and are unfamiliar with the phenomenon of the GP who refers to the hospital. You see this, for example, with some foreign students. Then I explain that it is best for them to go to the GP first if there is no emergency care.”
all edges
Hanneke’s request is: don’t shoot the messenger. “I’m just the one who explains to the patient why our hospital sometimes doesn’t provide the required care. Just like I’m just the one who sometimes has to interrupt a busy doctor because of a possible emergency. I let the sound be heard from both sides.”
Navigate
Hanneke and her colleagues navigate the patient through our hospital. “We mainly have a coordinating function: identifying the question or problem and then linking the patient to the right department or employee. Sometimes someone is emotional and at first it’s not quite clear to me what’s going on. Then I ask, for example: do you have problems with your heart or do you have problems with your lungs? In that case, I know that the patient needs to be connected to cardiology or lung disease.”
humor against stress
Her part-time job as a telephone operator benefited Hanneke when she was still a student. “For my studies I had to carry out practical assignments and write a thesis. I was able to do that thanks to my contacts in the hospital. An example of an assignment was that a communication message had to be analysed. I chose a video for this from the strategy and policy, marketing & communication department. And my thesis was about defense mechanisms of nurses: how do nurses at UMC Utrecht deal with stress? For this I interviewed and observed nurses in two nursing wards. The use of humor and the search for connection are defense mechanisms that I have come across a lot.”
Enthusiastic
Now that Hanneke has graduated, she takes a few months to find a permanent job. “I became enthusiastic about working in a healthcare organization. That is why I hope to be able to continue to use the knowledge and skills from my studies within this beautiful sector.”
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