5 Tips to Improve Patient Satisfaction
Consumers in all industries expect a high level of customer service – and healthcare is no different. To meet the expectations of their patients, providers must focus on patient engagement and satisfaction in tandem with clinical care.
Patient satisfaction can create loyalty and promote long-term relationships, which is essential in today’s environment of healthcare consumerism, where patients often shop around for providers.
Because patient satisfaction is an ever-evolving target, it’s important your care team and front office staff set goals that continually enhance and elevate the patient experience to new heights and greater depths.
Here are five tips to help your medical practice consistently meet or exceed your patients’ expectations:
1. Keep your tech up to date
Healthcare technology is constantly growing and changing. If your growing practice runs outdated systems that can't support increased capacity, it could be time to make a change. Aim for an efficient workflow that also meets patient expectations for ease of use (see tip #2).
2. Easy appointment booking
Waiting on hold to make a doctor’s appointment is a top pain point for patients who call your office expecting the same convenient processes they experience in other parts of their lives. In today's busy world, patients often don't have time to make appointments during regular business hours. In fact, 43% of patients prefer to self-schedule, and 68% say they are more likely to choose practices that offer the option to schedule online.1 Yet, just over half of practices (58%) currently use online scheduling.
3. Improve communication
Research shows patients have better outcomes when their physicians are effective communicators. That includes proactively explaining clinical terms, avoiding jargon, encouraging questions, and acknowledging your patients’ feelings. Tech can also help in ways that don’t take doctors’ time. For example, automated patient engagement tools can send prescription pick-up reminders that include targeted educational information and savings coupons.
Besides the immediate patient benefits, other advantages to better communication include job satisfaction for clinicians, improved reputation for your practice, and a reduction in medical errors and patient safety events.
4. Educate the patient
Patient education can strengthen your relationship with your patients and increase their satisfaction with your practice. Proactively offering information proactively helps patients avoid getting lost in “Dr. Google.” Your electronic health record (EHR) system likely has some patient educational content available to share. In addition, innovative platforms, such as RxInform, provide educational documents and videos that patients can view on their phones. All of this promotes patient-centered care and increases adherence to medication and treatments, which can lead to better patient outcomes.
5. Use patient feedback constructively
Regardless of how you run your practice, you can expect to receive feedback from patients – positive and negative. Complaints, while not always pleasant to hear, are an opportunity to identify gaps and help you gain valuable insights on improving patient satisfaction.
Whether embracing new technology like the iPrescribe app for mobile e-prescribing or improving your bedside manner, it’s crucial to recognize your patients’ expectations. Providing the best clinical care is no longer the only goal that matters to your practice, and it isn’t the only goal that will be measured by your patients. Their experience can impact how patients perceive the quality of care and can even impact outcomes.
1. https://financesonline.com/appointment-scheduling-statistics/