Patient Satisfaction is an indication of up to which level the patient is content and happy with the treatment and the services provided by your hospital. Patient Satisfaction is even an indicator of how satisfied and content the patient is with your services and care. While running a hospital or a clinic, patient satisfaction with your services and treatment is of utmost importance for establishing a healthy long-term relationship with your patients.
A contented patient would not only prefer your hospital for any health assistance in the future but also suggest your hospital to his friends and acquaintances for any treatment.
However, a discontent patient would neither keep up any bond with the hospital nor refer to anyone. Apparently, an extremely discontent patient would do every possible thing to stop his/her acquaintances from approaching your hospital under any circumstances.
Apart from maintaining the happiness and health of your patients, ensuring patient satisfaction can even help you get more incentive pay under the Hospital VBP program. Incorporating a relatable medical billing infographic is one of the best ways. Thus, Patient Satisfaction has uttermost importance in establishing strong goodwill of your hospital or clinic.
How to ensure patient satisfaction in your Hospital or Clinic?
In order to ensure patient satisfaction, safeguarding the patient’s interests and giving them quality services is crucial. Below are some methods by which you can improve as well as ensure patient satisfaction, hence creating a good image and leading to the prosperity of your healthcare center. Let’s see how.
Simplify the procedure
The patient at your hospital is already facing struggles due to his/her own health issues. On top of that, if they are subjected to complicated and lengthy procedures in the hospital, it further adds to their trouble. Thus, the foremost step to ensure patient satisfaction is to simplify the processes they need to go through and make them easier.
The planning and management must be done in such a manner that the patients or their accompanies don’t need to wait in long queues or wait for a long time. Efforts must be made to run these processes smoothly.
Educating the Staff
In order to accomplish your goal of ensuring patient satisfaction and developing healthy long-term relationships with them, educating the staff about your vision is important. When the staff is educated, they start working towards the goal in a better way, and the chances of successful execution of the vision escalate.
You should try motivating your staff to work for the goodwill of the patients, which would ultimately lead to the growth of your hospital in terms of business and amity, eventually benefiting your staff as well.
Increase the Time Spent with the Patients
Feeling rushed during appointments can lead to a feeling of dissatisfaction among patients. (As per a study infographics on 1,486 patients by nlm.nih.gov, most dissatisfied patients felt that their appointments lasted less time than expected. At the same time, those who felt that they got enough time for their appointment were satisfied with the healthcare center.
Improving the services and execution techniques
To maximize patient satisfaction, serving the patients in the best possible way is important. Keep in mind that the patients are conscious of various medical details also, and it’s crucial to have a patient-friendly attitude and implement the best techniques in your hospital. This will lead to spreading positive word of mouth and thus help create a good image of the hospital in society.
In addition, the hospital must be respectful to the patients, and the patients should feel encouraged and pleasant enough that it would have a positive effect on their health and their opinions about the hospital. Good quality services with a clean environment must be delivered to the patients.
Conduct Feedback
To ensure patient satisfaction, taking Feedback from the patients is a very crucial task. Patient satisfaction survey determines the quality of services provided, especially the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. Analyzing the patient’s feedback gives you a proper insight into the opinions and views of the patients in your hospital. Conducting regular feedback from the patients would make you aware of the real scenario of your hospital – the processes and policies going on there.
Now a patient feedback survey can be done in various ways. You can either use software or an application for the purpose of sending feedback emails and SMS to the patients after their discharge. Or you can go the other way round, setting up tables in the zones of clinic reception or waiting zone and collecting real-time feedback from the patients. Make sure the questions you ask are such that solving these will ensure patient satisfaction.
Taking adequate steps on the feedback data
Just collecting the feedback won’t ensure patient satisfaction unless some appropriate steps for improvement aren’t taken. In order to fasten this process, you can take certain steps like:
Inculcate a system to get instant message alerts for feedback responses, thus giving real-time notifications so as to take appropriate instant steps.
Immediate steps must be taken regardless of the issue and informing the patients regarding the changes so that the patients feel that their opinion matters.
Don’t forget to take a Follow-up
Taking follow-ups from the discharged patients is equally as critical as taking their feedback. This is an amazing way of expressing your sincere concern for their health. On top of that, you get the chance to get insights into their views of your hospital and services.
It even helps develop a long-term connection with the patients and ensures patient satisfaction. Furthermore, this would assist you in closing the feedback loop. Thus, by taking a follow-up, you can ensure patient satisfaction in your healthcare center.
Appropriate treatment by the doctors and staff
The most crucial component of a good patient experience is the treatment he/she is given. Sometimes even if your hospital provides great services, some patients might still give your center low ratings if their interactions with the staff are not great. Let’s have a look at some of the tips to fill up these communication gaps:
- Initiate the conversations
- Try to answer the majority of the patient’s questions and that too in a clear and appropriate manner
- Train the staff for healthy communication.
- Maintain eye contact while doing any conversation.
- Be professional. Doctors should be friendly with patients but, at the same time, must avoid discussions on personal topics.
FAQs
What does patient satisfaction really mean?
Patient satisfaction is all about excellence and management. It focuses on providing quality services and treatment to the patients and making sure they are satisfied with the treatment.
Is it necessary to ensure patient satisfaction?
Patient satisfaction is a very crucial part of the healthcare system. Patient satisfaction helps make a good image and promote your hospital’s goodwill in society.
How to conduct patient feedback?
One of the major factors in calculating and analyzing patient satisfaction is taking feedback. This can be done in various ways:
- A table can be arranged near the payment area so that patients can give their feedback right away.
- A feedback form can be sent to the patient’s email or mobile number.
Can you give some tips for formulating the feedback?
Well-formulated feedback is key to successful analysis of the patient experience.
- Focus on knowing what the patient feels about your hospital.
- Don’t include such questions in the feedback that might feel personal.
- Try to keep the feedback simple and easily understandable.
Conclusion
Patient satisfaction is very important for any healthcare center. If your hospital provides good services and treatment to your patients that makes them content, then your healthcare center would win the trust and loyalty of the patients. A satisfied patient would suggest their acquaintances and other people choose your hospital for their treatment.
This will bring in more patients. Delivering quality patient services and hospitality is one of the best strategies for development. The analogy is that when you provide a good quality patient experience, the business costs ultimately reduce. In addition, your staff will get the motivation to do their best due to the pleasant and positive work atmosphere.
In the final analysis, the essence of patient satisfaction is to pursue excellence. It needs awareness and dedication for growth and improvement. As for the doctors and other practitioners, by ensuring patient satisfaction, they get more patients by improving their practices. At the end of the day, we’ve discussed the various tips on how to ensure patient satisfaction and the various outcomes of a quality patient experience. In case of any query, make sure to drop by in the comment section.
