20 Effective and Surefire Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction

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20 Effective and Surefire Ways to Improve Patient
Satisfaction
Recently, an analysis of over 30,000 online
reviews of medical practitioners confirmed poor
service is patients biggest frustration. In
fact, according to this research, 96 percent of
patient grievances are due to disappointing
service, while the other four percent cite
misdiagnoses. Today, patients are customers. When
they walk through your doors, they have higher
expectations than ever before. Moreover, they
will not hesitate to utilize the power of social
media and tell the world if their experiences
with your medical practice are not as expected.
It is time for medical practitioners to work on
improving patient experience and deliver
high-quality service because that is the only way
to sustain yourself and grow your
practice. Before answering how to improve patient
experience, let us first understand why patient
experience is important. Why is the patient
experience important? s Value-based performance
is forcing medical practitioners to achieve
financial objectives, along with improving
patient satisfaction and experience. This is
because patients who have an excellent experience
are more likely to return and recommend your
practice to others. However, if they are not
happy with your service, they will run to your
competitor and post negative feedback about your
practice on social media. Happy patients, on the
other hand, will be immune to competitors and
help increase your revenue and profitability.
Besides, patient satisfaction is necessary to
obtain positive feedback on review websites.
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• Unfortunately, most medical practitioners do not
  understand the importance of improving patient
  satisfaction or what satisfies their patients.
  They assume that the most significant factor is
  the quality of treatment. What they do not
  understand is that patients have no way to
  measure the quality they are receiving. Instead,
  patients rely more on how the doctor and the
  medical staff respond to their emotional needs.
• How to improve patient satisfaction?
• Here are some of the simplest and most creative
  ways to increase patient satisfaction at your
  practice
• Make your practice look engaging
• Patients will form opinions about your practice
  before they even meet you. The first impression
  will start with a well-designed, patient-friendly
  website where visitors can learn about your
  practice and the range of services you offer.
  Also, dont forget to include interactive tools
  that allow patients to schedule appointments and
  communicate with your staff through email.
• Respect your patients

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Your staff must commit to giving patients the
attention they deserve throughout their visit.
Right from the moment the patient arrives for a
scheduled appointment until the time he/she
leaves, your staff must provide excellent
service. 3. Improve communication with
patients Patient communication begins with
answering phones with enthusiasm and being
willing to answer all of their questions. Your
staff should never say no to a patient, even if
they dont have the answer. When patients come in
for their scheduled appointments, your
front-office staff should make eye contact with
them and smile. Be reassuring and comforting if
the patients seem restless.

• Optimize the appointment process
• You must try to establish a well-managed
  appointment scheduling system that has
  professional templates. You must keep the office
  phone lines open during lunch hours. This can be
  done by rotating staff schedules and making sure
  someone is always available to take phone calls.
• Be prompt in answering and returning phone calls

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• Dont keep patients on hold for more than 30
  seconds, and dont keep transferring calls from
  one person to the other. You must be sure to
  return phone calls and emails within a standard
  time frame. Your staff must be aware of the
  established time frame for responding to
  questions. Also, never make patients wait for
  their scheduled appointments. Check them in and
  let them know how long they are likely to wait.
• Simplify the billing process
• Patients who are happy with your practices
  billing process are more likely to pay their
  bill in full, return to the practice and
  recommend your practice to their family and
  friends. To provide a seamless experience, your
  staff should be trained to discuss and collect
  payment, provide an accurate estimate of the bill
  and explain the components of the bill to the
  patient.
• Establish a process to obtain feedback
• One of the most frustrating situations a patient
  can run into is having a bad experience but never
  getting the chance to vent concerns. Without the
  patients feedback, your practice will assume
  everything is fine while the patient is searching
  for a new medical provider. According to
  published reports, 55 percent of patients who had
  a bad experience but received a satisfactory
  resolution returned to the same practice. So you
  must keep asking for feedback and give your
  patients the opportunity to voice their concerns
  either in the office or soon after they leave.
  Your staff must be trained to handle negative
  feedback with an apology and a solution and
  incorporate that feedback into your operations.
• Dont rush through your appointments
• As much as possible, try to spend quality time
  with your patients and listen carefully to their
  concerns. You must make them feel heard and sit

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• down with them during appointments. Dont make
  your patients repeat the same information over
  and over. You can consider electronic medical
  records to resolve these redundancies. Making eye
  contact with the patient as much as you can will
  indicate that you are paying attention and are
  engaged with the patient. Dont keep looking at
  your watch, and dont stand with one hand on the
  door as if youre trying to run away.
• When you are in a hurry, your patients may feel
  anxious and unwelcome.
• Find ways to follow up with patients
• Receiving generic wellness plans would make many
  patients feel a stronger bond with their medical
  practitioners. While you cant act as patients
  daily health coach, you can get them engaged by
  sending them generic healthcare material between
  appointments.
• Be accessible at all times
• Patients are often disappointed by the inability
  to communicate directly with their doctor between
  appointments. Direct communication with their
  doctor will help increase patient satisfaction.
  You can consider exchanging secure messages and
  building systems that open the lines of
  communication between you and the patient. This
  will not only encourage long-term relationships
  but will also result in better health outcomes.

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11. Foster a caring attitude Everyone in your
practice must operate with a patient-first
approach. Your front-desk staff is your first
point of patient interaction, so their attitude
toward patients must be positive and healthy.
Attitude is everything, and when your front desk
is indifferent, your patients will simply leave.
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• Cultivate long-term relationships.
• Most medical practitioners are trying to juggle
  too many patients in a limited time, which may
  make the staff tired and stressed. However, a
  patient will only be happy with your practice as
  long he or she has rapport with your staff. You
  must train and encourage your staff to send
  thank-you cards and birthday wishes to patients.
  Or just a brief phone call to follow up on
  medications and recovery can foster long-term
  relationships. Make sure your staff is trained on
  delivering high-quality service along with a
  positive patient experience. You should also
  encourage your staff to suggest ideas for
  improving patient satisfaction within your
  practice.
• Focus on patient education
• Providing your patients with the knowledge they
  require to improve their health and adopt a
  healthier lifestyle is critical to the patient
  experience. Your patients will feel valued and
  cared for when they leave your office with more
  knowledge than they had when they arrived.
  Studies have shown that patient education can
  result in patient retention, which leads to
  increased patient satisfaction and fosters
  long-term relationships.
• Create an environment of caring
• The greatest improvement in patient satisfaction
  will happen when the patient feels cared for. You
  can easily accomplish this kind of positive
  patient relationship by small gestures, such as
  addressing the patient by first name, greeting
  them with a smile, making eye contact, paying
  attention to what the patient has to say, etc.
  Even offering a box of tissues if a patient is
  distressed will go a long way in increasing your
  patient satisfaction level.

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• Differentiate your staff
• Your patients may find it annoying when they are
  surrounded by medical professionals but are not
  sure whom to approach when they have a concern or
  request. This may become even more frustrating
  when the patient approaches one of your staff
  members only to be directed another member. The
  easiest way to differentiate your team is by
  providing different-color scrubs so that your
  patients can easily recognize an RN from a PA.
• Empower nurses
• Nurses have a critical role in patient-centric
  care and improving the satisfaction level in
  patients. Nurses who are more independent will
  provide better patient care as they feel
  empowered in their work. You can consider
  creating a staffing committee to allow your
  nurses to collaborate for better patient care and
  give them the freedom to improve the patient
  experience.
• Improve the atmosphere in your practice
• Cleanliness is an indicator of quality, and
  focusing on sanitation can improve overall
  patient outcomes. Also, noise, lighting and
  quick-paced movement may not encourage
  relaxation. Therefore, you must think about
  upgrading your décor to create a more welcoming
  environment and tackle the issue of restlessness.
  You can try to help patients relax by installing
  quieter equipment and wearable devices to nurses,
  especially at night.
• Protect your patients confidentiality

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Most of the topics surrounding a patients visit
to your practice are of a sensitive nature.
Therefore, your staff needs to understand and
respect the surroundings in which they are
speaking with a patient and try their best to
preserve confidentiality. 19. Observe the
patient During your meeting with a patient,
keep looking for signs that may indicate that the
patient is not satisfied. If you happen to sense
any such sign, be proactive in responding to your
patients doubts and questions. If your patient
has a complaint, and even if you dont know the
solution, find someone who can help the patient.
Empathy is critical as it will convince the
patient that you are listening and care about
their well- being.
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20. Dont set the bar too low Dont set the bar
too low by comparing your service only to other
medical practitioners. You should learn about
strategies of companies outside the healthcare
sector that provide the highest quality of
customer service. So you must set your customer
service standards against the best
in service-intensive industries. Providing a
quality patient experience is the most powerful
growth strategy
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By providing consistently satisfying experiences,
your medical practice will win patient loyalty
and become a provider of choice. Patients will
spread the good word, which will bring in more
patients. Providing a quality patient experience
is the most powerful growth strategy. This is
because when you are providing an exceptional
patient experience, you will eventually reduce
the costs of doing business. Also, your staff
will find the positive work climate more
satisfying, which in turn will help reduce staff
turnover. At the end of the day, patient
satisfaction is about pursuing excellence. It
demands attention and commitment to do better
each day. Medical practitioners who embrace a
culture of patient satisfaction enjoy significant
growth in revenue as well as practice size. If
you have any questions or need any help in
improving patient satisfaction level, please feel
free to contact Practice Builders and receive a
complete assessment of your customer service
strategy. Our team of experts will offer you
actionable tips to improve patient satisfaction,
attract new patients and grow revenue.