Patient satisfaction is critical because it can have a significant impact on the success and reputation of a practice. Satisfied patients are more likely to refer others and to return for additional services, which can help increase revenue and improve the overall health of the practice. Conversely, dissatisfied patients can damage a practice’s reputation, leading to lost revenue and potential legal issues.
Some strategies for improving patient satisfaction in practice management include:
- Effective communication: Clear and open communication with patients can help build trust and foster positive relationships. This includes listening to their concerns, explaining treatments and procedures, and providing timely and accurate information.
- Quality care: Providing high-quality care that meets or exceeds expectations is essential for patient satisfaction. This includes ensuring that services are provided in a safe, clean, and comfortable environment and that staff are knowledgeable and competent.
- Efficient operations: Efficient operations can help ensure that patients are seen on time and that their needs are met in a timely manner. This includes managing schedules, minimizing wait times, and ensuring that staff are trained to manage common tasks and issues.
- Continuous improvement: Continuously evaluating and improving operations can help identify areas for improvement and ensure that the practice is meeting the evolving needs of patients.
You might be wondering how do you take these strategies and put them into action to improve the patient’s experience?
Automate patient surveys
Automating patient surveys can be a great way to streamline the process of collecting feedback from patients and can also help to ensure that data is collected consistently and accurately. Here are a few steps to follow to automate patient surveys:
Choose a survey tool: There are many survey tools available that can help automate patient surveys. There are many software options on the market that offer patient surveys in addition to appointment reminders and patient engagement. Popular options include Klara, Phreesia, and Relatient. You will want to pick one that integrates with your EHR and practice management software.
Create your survey: Select software that allows customization and a well as a reporting function. Determine what your practice wants to monitor, i.e., patient wait times, ease of making an appointment, availability of an appointment, overall satisfaction of the customer service provided. Make sure to keep the questions clear and concise and avoid asking leading questions that might bias the responses. Set parameters if a patient selects a 4–5-star rating to redirect them to leave a Google review.
Distribute and collect responses: Once your patients have completed a visit to your practice, the software will then generate sending out the survey responses. The response rate for patient surveys is typically low. Awareness and encouraging feedback from your patients are a terrific way to increase participation.
- Post signage in your exam rooms and check out area asking patients for their feedback.
- Have a contest around feedback from patients and promote on your website and social media pages.
- Schedule select times for the surveys to go out and reminder messages if patients have not completed the survey within 3 business days.
- Set up a comment box in your waiting room areas.
Follow up with patients: Determine a protocol for reviewing and responding to the survey feedback. Following up with patients is key in addressing any issues or concerns that patients have raised. Failure to follow up on patient feedback results in further frustration and dissatisfaction from your patients.
Hire a social media manager
Your marketing team plays a significant role in the success of your practice. Social media managers monitor social media channels for negative comments and reviews and work to address them in a timely and professional manner. They can help to protect the practice’s reputation by addressing customer complaints and diffusing potential crises before they escalate.
Social media managers also engage with your customers on social media by responding to comments and messages, sharing user-generated content, and running social media contests and campaigns. They can help to build a community of loyal fans and brand ambassadors who are more likely to recommend the practice to others.
Take action
Be prepared to make a change. Improving or changing processes is an essential part of practice management and continuous improvement. Once an issue has been identified, work with your team on finding a solution to resolve or improve the process. Get input from your employees as they are the experts in what they do, completing the process at hand daily. Once your team has brainstormed and tested out the new process, implement it. Once the changes have been implemented, it is important to evaluate their effectiveness and adjust if necessary. This involves monitoring the process over time, measuring key performance indicators, and making changes as needed to ensure that the process continues to improve.
In today’s highly competitive healthcare industry, providing a positive patient experience is more important than ever. Prioritizing the patient’s experience can give healthcare providers a competitive edge by differentiating their practice, building a strong reputation, increasing patient loyalty, improving outcomes, and reducing costs. By putting the patient at the center of the healthcare experience, medical practices can improve patient satisfaction and achieve better results for both patients and the business.
