Poor Communications at Hospital CIMA and Vanilla Pods Drying in the Sun.

I gave up New Year resolutions years ago but I’m reminded of the school reports ‘she could do better’, having neglected my column very badly at the old year end.

Six years into the Costa Rican adventure, life is busy with lots of distractions and they’re all the more tempting at the end of the wet season when dull days thwart the inspiration. Its SO good to have the sun back! – lots of orchids coming into flower, enjoy some while I tell you of one small ‘wet weather’ escapade.

Immigrants often complain about the lack of a ‘customer care’ culture in Costa Rica. That’s an unjustified generalism but one would expect it to be exemplary in the ‘best hospital in Costa Rica’ – Hospital CIMA, featured regularly in the press for its clinical excellence.

Our young cleaner has a thyroid problem which is not being well managed. My husband John and I were willing to help her see a specialist in San Jose so I went in search of information to compare the options available.

In a nutshell? My experience with Hospital CIMA was awful!

The website professed ‘designed and organised for Americans’ – ?? when only 25% of its customers are ‘foreigners’, offensive to Costa Rican nationals and hardly conveys that other nationalities are welcome!

While the site had lists of specialists, no profile information was provided to guide the would-be customer.

A list of illustrative costs for selected procedures was (still is) five years old

No phone number or ‘contact us’ option was provided – only an email route to ‘budget office’ which failed to respond to two enquiries.

The switchboard operators only spoke Spanish, and with irritating music in the background – a nightmare when our telephone lines are so poor.

In pursuit of a sales or customer office, I spent half an hour being shunted from pillar to post, being cut off, being irritated to hell and getting no where.

Learn the expression ‘por favor, yo quiero hablar con el jefe’ – “I want to speak with the boss please!” I got one: charming and sympathetic but could I put it all in writing?

The subsequent response was studded with standard paragraphs such as ‘truly sorry …. for anxiety, frustration and inconvenience that you, your friends and colleagues experienced’ – rubbish, they didn’t.

The only thing standard paragraphs convey is that an organisation has enough complaints to justify writing them. However, I did get some rewards – ‘in the last week …. We have implemented a new Contact Centre that will allow us to ‘Dial 2 for English’ and provide English speaking operators’ and the promise to speak to ‘top management’ about improvement of the website.

It seems things are happening, albeit some weeks down the line:

An operator this morning did speak English.

The switchboard does offer ‘Dial 2 for English’ … but guess what, all the ensuing options are in Spanish!

The old website remains but when you get to the location map, there is now an option to go to Hospital CIMA – and Eureeka, there’s a whole new site under construction! Lots of Spanish information available but press English and man-with-hard-hat appears to tell you its still under construction!

Specialist’s profiles are now being provided – excellent, though when looking for the dermatologist who consults here, I found 10 consultants shared the same two photos!

I’ve no delusion that this progress is down to me; other WLCR members may well have complained too. Whatever, its good to contemplate the ‘front face’ of CIMA may soon reflect its clinical excellence. There’s a good business maxim ‘you don’t get a second chance to create a good first impression’ – but acting on complaints certainly sends the right messages.

And.., I’m happy to report our cleaner did get excellent treatment and is bouncing back to her cheery self again.




PS. Joy of joys – vanilla beans have dried successfully but now need SIX months in a sealed container to mature! Did I say Crème Bruleee for Christmas? – now re-scheduled for my birthday in July. There were seven but a squirrel got one, probably thought it was a miniature banana – I’ll probably smell it secreted away in a tree some day!

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Written by VIP Member Sheelagh Richards. Sheelagh is originally from Scotland and her husband John who is from Wales are two inveterate British travellers who fell in love with Costa Rica, the beauty of the Talamanca mountain range and the perfect climate of the Rio General valley where they have established a small Bed & Breakfast called Casa de Los Celtas.




You can see more about John and Sheelagh’s very affordable B&B outside San Isidro here and photographs and prices here and you can also see a free online video interview with John & Sheelagh Richards here.

If you have a serious interest in buying a home, a farm or land that’s for sale in the San Isidro area, please contact our Recommended Costa Rica Realtors: Daveed Hollander, James Drews and John Wieland, by using the simple form below:

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.