• Customer Service Management
• Executive Search
• Expert Witness
• Governance/Management Retreats
• Interim Management
• Mystery Shopping
• Publishing: The Mathis Maxims: Lessons in Leadership, Larry L. Mathis
• Speaking Engagements & Keynote Addresses
• Strategic Planning

D. Peterson & Associates is a leader in customer service management. The firm provides consultation on all aspects of creating a customer-focused healthcare organization. The services include:

Planning/Management: Service Strategy is not just a series of workshops, but an ongoing program that requires a well-thought-out plan and constant oversight.

Measurement: There must be baseline measures against which progress in improving customer service orientation can be measured. The tools we provide include service assessments, mystery shopping, customer surveys and focus groups.

Training: Training programs for manager, employees, trainers, volunteers, physicians, and office staff members are available.

Communications: Because of its ongoing nature, the Service Strategy program relies on constant communication meant to educate, motivate, and recognize participants.

Recognition: Nothing motivates or educates like recognition of performance and accomplishment.

Finding just the right person to fill a critical position in your organization can be a delicate and time-consuming process. It's a job best handled by professionals, like Diane Peterson, FACHE, and our skilled associates at D. Peterson & Associates. Based on our extensive experience working with health care organizations of all types, we have developed a tried-and-true process for finding and helping you choose the best candidate. And we guarantee our results.

Diane Peterson and Larry L. Mathis have served as experts to testify in trials related to health care management. Both have chaired the national professional society, American College of Healthcare Executives and Larry has also chaired the American Hospital Association. They are recognized as leaders in their fields. As expert witnesses, they have helped attorneys in their defense of health care clients.

Successful retreats are based upon thorough preparation, excellent facilitation and meaningful discussion of topics. D. Peterson & Associates has developed a reputation for outstanding retreats that result in action and greater understanding.

Whenever hospitals and other healthcare organizations require temporary, interim management, D. Peterson & Associates has talent to loan. Our seasoned executives enjoy the opportunity to make an impact as interim executives or as turn-around experts.

D. Peterson & Associates was the first to provide mystery shopping in a healthcare setting. We have a database of hundreds of visits to healthcare facilities. Mystery shopping expeditions are meant to provide a snapshot view of your organization from the customer's point of view. Known only to a select few in the client organization, the D. Peterson & Associates (DPA) shopper poses as a patient or visitor, observes a wide range of factors, and reports findings and recommendations to the client. Our inventive, adaptable mystery shoppers can adjust to almost any scenario-even to being admitted as an inpatient.

• Ease of access
• Behavior of staff
• Facilities - conditions and ambiance
• Coordination of delivery systems

The kinds of mystery shopping assessments DPA professionals can perform are almost limitless. Those requested most often include caller, visitor, outpatient, inpatient, and shopping the competitor.

Larry L. Mathis has authored a superb book titled, The Mathis Maxims: Lessons in Leadership. The book is an experience-based, realistic guide to the minefields of the executive suite. It illustrates effective executive leadership through the original maxims, supported by anecdotal stories. The book is an extremely interesting, humorous and practical guide for up-and-coming or already-arrived executives about the realities of organizational stress and success. It has won the prestigious Bugbee/Falk Award of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration and won accolades from all reviewers.

Larry L. Mathis and Diane Peterson are nationally-known speakers who are sought after presenters for their keynote addresses and educational sessions. Some of their leading topics are:

• Mystery Shopping Your Hospital: See What Your Customers See (Diane Peterson)
• Marketing Yourself: Getting the Position You Want in Healthcare (Diane Peterson)
• Climbing the Corporate Ladder in Pants or a Skirt: Is There a Gender Gap? (Diane Peterson)
• Creating Happy Patients and a Healthy Bottom Line (Diane Peterson)
• Building the Board/Management Team (Diane Peterson or Larry Mathis)
• The Mathis Maxims: Lessons in Leadership (Larry Mathis)
• Making the Sumo Sprint (Larry Mathis)
• Answering the Tough Questions-Ethics and the New Health Care Marketplace (Larry Mathis)

We have delivered strategic planning consulting services to hospitals, health care systems, physician groups, and other providers. Clients have ranged in size from rural hospitals with less than 50 beds to major academic medical centers with beds and employees numbered in the thousands. Our client base has been built primarily on word-of-mouth recommendations of satisfied clients.

D. Peterson and Associates has been endorsed by the Texas Healthcare Trustees, an affiliate of THA-The Association of Texas Hospitals and Health Care Organizations.