Having a successful healthcare center was enough in the past. Patients nowadays, on the other hand, want high-quality, quick service. After all, retaining patients and gaining new customers is critical to any business’s success. Understanding patient experience in healthcare encompasses touchpoints, preferred communication routes, and so on.
By focusing on all of these, you may better grasp the big gaps that remain unfilled. As a result, medical service providers will be able to attain patient satisfaction.
The patient’s journey begins with searching for a reputable doctor and continues after they leave for an appointment. But it is crucial and worth putting the effort into ensuring patients feel comfortable and at ease on each step of their interaction with the hospital service providers.
- When it comes to selecting a doctor, 82 percent of patients put customer service first.
- 72% of patients feel they may switch to medical care providers who offer the promised experience.
As a result, emphasizing the patient experience can result in higher patient satisfaction and a higher retention rate.
So, let us take you to actionable ways that any hospital establishment can implement to boost their patient experience.
Effective Ways to Boost Patient Experience at Hospitals
Offer Online Appointment Scheduling
The patients usually face long queue challenges. It hampers their health and negatively impacts their experience with the facility. Here, enabling the patients to fill out the registration forms and check-in to the queues remotely can reduce the waiting frustration. Plus, the appointment turn-around time will smooth out reducing the staff’s stress.
Here, incorporating a hospital queue system is an ideal choice. It gives patients the convenience and freedom to schedule the booking at their leisure. The staff’s stress of manually handling the queues is reduced. This is because people can wait anywhere they want or perform other tasks until their turn comes. Thus, improving patient care.
After all, these are the most wanted things that patients expect in the healthcare industry. In addition to queuing solutions, you can also invest in a patient management system to improve the experience and obtain patient loyalty.
Focus on Minimal Wait Times
Long wait times increase the patient’s annoyance. According to 43 percent of patients, the most inconvenient aspect of visiting the doctor is the wait time. In addition, one out of every five patients changes doctors due to high wait times.
Hence, having the proper scheduling guidelines are essential to avoid overbookings. Also, if the patient is running late then they must be informed about the wait times. Keep in mind that consistent communication is the key to building brand loyalty. Thus, ensure keeping the patients notified about the exact wait times. Thus, making patients value transparency.
Patients won’t mind waiting for a bit. But not respecting them and their time by making them wait in excess will only influence their experience.
Send Reminders and Notifications
Every person has a hectic schedule. As a result, keep them informed about the practice by sending them reminders and confirmations. These can include things like perceived wait times, service delays, confirmation of rescheduled appointments, and more.
Furthermore, automating the communication helps to make patients feel their time is valued. Also, there is a decline in no-shows.
Several patients prefer outreaching via SMS, especially when it is about appointment-related notifications.
The stats put it better:
- 59% of patients expect SMS reminders to schedule the next appointment.
- 66% of patients like to be notified about their visit through SMS.
Hence, keep in mind the patient’s preference to serve them better and enhance their experience with your hospital facility.
Enhance Your Communication Strategies
As the world moves closer to digitization, numerous new techniques have emerged to maintain continual communication with patients. The everyday process, availability of staff, and working hours change from time to time. Hence, staying proactive and keeping the patients informed is essential. Here, the best strategies come from regular website updates, email marketing, proactive on social media, and more. These will help to stay competitive. Also, ensure the client-facing information is accurate.
Quickly Respond to Online Patient Feedback
Surveys are an excellent approach to learn more about the patient experience. With a better understanding of how patients felt about the hospital, doctors, and staff, changes can be made where necessary. You can also ask patients to leave reviews on your website. There will be opportunities to learn from both positive and negative feedback in every way. As a result, a greater emphasis will be placed on improving the patient experience.
How to do so?
Here, an automated queue system is necessary that asks the patients about their experience upon their checkout.
Thank them for their helpful input if they give you a high rating. If the review is negative, reassure them that their concerns will be addressed and that nothing similar will occur again.
If they give you a high rating, you can ask for a review by email. In case they give you a low rating, you can inquire about how you could enhance their experience or offer to remedy any problems they may have had
Besides, responding to customer feedback is also crucial. This builds trust and shows them that their experience and time matter.
Train Staff to Deliver Friendly Patient Experience
Your front-office staff acts as the primary touchpoint for communicating with the patients. Also, it is the first experience the patients will have in the hospital. Of course, no matter how much quality care you offer, if the staff is friendly or caring, patients would not come back.
Therefore, delivering a great experience throughout the patient journey is the key to keeping them coming back.
Make your employees aware of the necessity of good patient encounters and care. They should be trained and asked to maintain a patient-friendly attitude. As a result, a warm and friendly hospital experience is provided.
Furthermore, a small gesture made during the check-in procedure might make the entire journey more joyful and satisfying.
Overall, the little things matter for the people who know nothing about online appointments, how to use tech, and expect in-person care and friendly services.
Summing Up
To conclude, multiple factors contribute to a better patient experience. Considering all these essential ways and implementing them earlier can help boost the efficiency of hospital services. Besides, investing in a technological solution like queue management system and so on must be emphasized. As a result, patient happiness will increase, patient retention will grow, and the hospital’s reputation will improve.
Overall, the aim of every hospital or medical facility must be to provide quality care. Always put yourself in the place of the patients and understand their pain points, and provide the best care possible.
Qwaiting is a software platform that caters to a variety of businesses, including healthcare. It is a cost-effective and efficient way for medical facilities to alleviate patient concerns about long lines. Therefore, patient engagement is achieved and expected care is delivered.