Our hospital has recently merged with another, and we are working on ways to
consolidate and share our services effectively. One thing being implemented
is shared email addresses - previously, all email accounts were assigned to
individuals, now there are [log in to unmask] email accounts for each
site, any user can address a request to either site, we can pick up each
other's requests for vacation coverage, etc. All fine. However, the
administrator overseeing this wants to essentially make it "mandatory" that
all requests be directed this way - he wants people to use this method of
communicating with us and discourage phone calls, emails directed to
individual librarians, etc. Am I supposed to tell the person who calls me
or who walks in the door with a question that oh, no, you have to
send an email? People who've worked with us for ten years are probably
going to continue to call and email, and while I would be happy to educate
them about the new email arrangement and its advantages, I am resisting the
idea of saying that is the "only" way they are "allowed" to contact us.
Please don't suggest all the sinister overtones to this - believe me, I've
thought of them all. Just seems to me, in this era of "patient-centered
care," (the other hospital partner is even a Planetree hospital) we
shouldn't be looking for ways to *restrict* how people can ask for service!
Thoughts?
--
Julie Stielstra, MLS
Manager, Knowledge Resource Library
Central DuPage Hospital
25 N Winfield Rd
Winfield, IL 60190
phone 630-933-4536
fax 630-933-4530
email jstielstra [ at ] gmail.com
"Never...be mean in anything; never be false; never be cruel. Avoid those
three vices...and I can always be hopeful of you." -- Betsy Trotwood to
David Copperfield (Charles Dickens)