Experience is an emotion that lasts forever; make sure you create a good one for your patients!
What exactly is patient experience?
We live in a world where customer experience & their review/feedback reigns supreme. The healthcare industry has begun to witness the same processes and outcomes through a similar lens.
For instance, consider hospitals and healthcare systems as businesses & patients as customers. However, keep it till instance only. After all, this won’t be totally true as the care given by the healthcare professionals is not a product and the whole system involves empathy over anything. But while considering it metaphorically, a customer, in this case, a patient must have a positive experience in order to continue using the services.
Thus, patient experience is a term often applied broadly to points like initiatives that ensure patients feel seen and heard; even reduced hospital stay length and readmission rates for that matter.
How to enhance the patient experience?
Well, as said, keep up the work, results shall shine! Simply ensure activities that work towards patient satisfaction and it shall ultimately enhance the patient experience. And don’t forget about the very basic of things too; a clean environment, for example portrays a professional practice that cares about the wellbeing of their patients and staff. So, whether you employ a few in-house janitors or someone like this company offering hospital cleaning in Oklahoma City, OK to maintain a good level of cleanliness, you can never underestimate the importance of this particular task.
Here are four areas of focus for improving the patient experience-
- Actively listen to patients need
Sounds obvious? Well, though it is a common notion, it is not an easy task for healthcare professionals with a constant flow of patients. However, this situation can hamper patient experience which no doctor would want.
Tip- A patient engagement platform that offers effective solutions can be a savior in this scenario.
- Spare the excessive administrative work at the patient’s end
Convenience fosters care. Make sure the process for a patient is not tedious. He/she is already in pain, why aggravate the situation by adding tasks for them? A simple & easy to implement process right from visit 1 to the recovered goodbye should be maintained.
- Calculate patient satisfaction based on their feedback
Start with gathering patient feedback. Analyze what your patients feel about the care. With that measure their satisfaction. Based on the insights, you can either modify what is lacking and even amplify what is working for your patients.
- Get your whole staff involved & invested
Experience is overall; enhance it holistically. Right from the receptionist who first attends the patient to you who gives the treatment & everyone in-between must have a positive impact on the patient.
For eg. in a gynecologist’s clinic, the nurse of any first-hand caregiver may leave either a scar or a smile on the patient, just with the words. Generally, patients are hesitant to speak their minds & might find it uncomfortable to share their ailment if he/she hears a negative comment from anyone at the clinic/hospital. Thus, keeping a healthy, happy and empathetic environment is a must for a positive patient experience.
What are the benefits of doing so?
Well, a patient with a positive experience is an asset to the healthcare professional. Listing below broadly what impacts it holds-
- Positive experience induces happiness
- It aids in the treatment
- Speeds up recovery time
- Makes patients feel valued
- The patient recommends his doctor’s service in his circle, thus word of mouth brings more patient flow.
- Helps HCP in retention
A patient engagement platform integrates all the aspects that are said above and provides the most effective patient engagement solutions accordingly.
One such platform is Nth Sense whose tagline says – Making Healthcare a Happy Experience. Thus, considering patient experience is important will add value to the whole process of the healthcare industry.
