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Topic: Patient Experience & Loyalty

EFS Patient Experience: satisfaction, scores, loyalty and leakage.

Call Center & Patient Feedback: What You Need To Know

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Healthcare call centers should turn over every rock when trying to enhance the customer experience. Treat them like gold and they will treat you well with more business going forward. That being said, there are several strategies you could use. So let’s explore how to improve your customer service and healthcare call center by patient feedback right now:

Why Is It Important To Collect Client Feedback And Call Services?

Feedback is the most important metric for any call center. Helps you run your organization better. It helps you get greater visibility on what your customer base is looking for. Ultimately, you can sharpen your vision and grow your firm from there. For instance, if you received a lot of negative feedback, then you know you’re doing well. If you receive a lot of positive feedback, then you know you have a lot to improve upon. Let’s look at some of the benefits of getting feedback from call centers, as well as strategies.

What is Feedback?

It allows them to tell you about your product or service from their viewpoint. Helps you analyze where you can improve. Feedback can take several forms like customer surveys, interviews, or asking them to share reviews.

Tips To Improve A Medical Call Center With Feedback

Find Out Positives and Negatives

Asking them what they liked, what they didn’t like, and what they might suggest as a change are really important avenues for improving your healthcare call center and medical center.

Customer Participation

The more engaged and active a patient is with your call center, then the more they’re going to feel an affiliation with your brand or medical company.

Recognition

People love to feel like they’re being acknowledged and listened to. Companies that don’t get feedback from customers suffer from them feeling like there’s an impersonal relationship.

Enhancing Your Product And Offerings

It’s difficult to know exactly how to improve your offering without getting direct feedback from the clients. However, when you ask them directly from their mouth what they want, you can simply add that to your offerings.

Get Testimonials, References And Recommendations

Word of mouth is one of the most powerful ways to grow your business.This is true for the medical field or anything else. Therefore, by reminding people what they like about your business, they’ll be more likely to refer you to other people.

Improve Your Business

You should always be looking to improve your product and services. Getting customer surveys is one of the best ways that you can do that.

Improve Surveys Today

Reach out to Guideway Care today for medical call center services. Get the best customer survey agents, scripts, and resources. That way, you can continue to grow your practice.

Tips To Engage Inactive Patients

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Patient reactivation is one of the most important topics when it comes to healthcare services. After all, if a patient falls out of engagement and is no longer active, they may miss out on important care. This could cause them to have worsening health conditions and even lead to fatal consequences. That’s why in this blog post, we’re going to talk about how to engage inactive patients to get them back where they need to be. Additional Reading: Empowering Patients To Be Active In Their Experience

The Benefits Of Engaging Inactive Patients

Some of the benefits of engaging in active patients are:

Improving The Health Outcomes

It’s so important for your medical practice to improve the health outcomes of your patients and prevent additional readmissions. Lowering the chance of hospitalization is another side effect of this.

Overall Satisfaction

The better satisfaction that your patients have, then the more that your medical practice can grow. Therefore, by providing excellent experiences and engaging the patients, they’ll feel like they’re more respected. This will lead to better responses and scores on evaluations as well. Read More: The Importance of Patient Satisfaction

Limiting Mistakes

You can’t afford to make mistakes with your patients. Otherwise, you could neglect to provide them with the best levels of care possible and your reputation will suffer. Therefore, the more engaged the patients are, the more you can learn about their specific situations and how to help them with the best approach possible.

Reduce Patient Dormancy

A patient who hasn’t been active or engaged in several years could be considered a dormant patient. This is the next step before they become a lost patient. You need to aim for a retention rate around 50% in order to break even on acquiring the customers. Otherwise, you risk spending additional revenues just to bring in patients to sustain your medical practices.

Engaging Inactive Patients

Engaging inactive patients is no small feat. You need to use a variety of methods available to you. The omnichannel approach is one way to achieve this. Using text messages, SMS, social media, email, and more, you can reach your patients wherever they are. So while there is no one-size-fits-all answer, consulting with professionals in this field can help you put together the right strategy.

Improve Your Patient Engagement Today

Reach out to Guideway Care. We can help you in a variety of ways in your medical practice, from medical insurance verification to appointment scheduling to patient reactivation. Our experts are proud to assist you in any way possible. You deserve a team that understands your industry and how to help your patients at the highest level.

Contact Center Quality Assurance: What It Is And How It Works

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Call centers are incredibly helpful for your medical center in order to improve patient outcomes and enhance your internal systems. That being said, there are certain strategies that need to be adhered to. Otherwise, quality results and efficiency could drop off. Let’s talk about call center quality assurance and why it’s so important. We’ll also talk about some of the ways to enhance the QA in your medical call center.

What Is Call Center QA (Quality Assurance)?

Call center quality assurance, also known as call center quality management, is when companies make sure that the patient experience aligns with the goals of the medical facility as well. It’s important for keeping patients happy and also ensuring your own success. This also can help patients maintain loyalty over the long term. There are certain aspects to quality assurance such as first call resolution, empathy in the agent, the correct script tonality, language, and word choices, efficiency, and loyalty.

Call Center Quality Assurance Guidelines

Review Periods

Every so often you should have a review period where you look at the KPIs and ensure that your organization is adhering to the standards that you set out. After all, it’s one thing to set a standard, it’s another thing to follow through with it. So you should ensure that all of your agents are sticking to the rules of the scripts.

Patient Retention

The more patients you lose, the more patients you need to bring in via acquisition. This can create financial costs that can be difficult to surmount. So part of your quality assurance is looking at how many patients are retained. After all, if you’re doing the right things, then your patient retention rate should be going up. In addition, ensure you are getting patient feedback consistently. For more information on its importance and how to garner feedback, read this next.

Reputation Online

Having an online presence is important, such as having a great website and social media presence. You should also be looking for online evaluations, ratings, reviews, and of course testimonials. Try to identify good reviews and bad reviews from previous patients. If there is a common thread in things that you need to improve upon, then that means that your quality assurance has a long way to go.

Ensure Your Medical Call Center Is State Of The Art

A healthcare call center should be more than simply people answering phones. From appointment scheduling to reducing churn to enhancing health outcomes, a healthcare call center can truly achieve significant results. So reach out to Guideway Care today. Let’s ensure that quality assurance guidelines are always met with any aspect of your medical call center services.

How to Improve Medical Call Center CSAT Scores

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When it comes to health call centers, customer service is critical. And the CSAT score is one way to gauge how successful your phone operations are in meeting patients’ needs. Any quality assurance measure aims to improve the level of service, understanding, and results. However, it is necessary to implement tracking measures so that performance can be measured on an individual basis across all of the agents in a call center. So in this article, we’ll explore how to improve CSAT scores in call centers. The higher the score, the better you’re doing. The lower the score, the more improvements that need to be made.

What is a CSAT score in customer service?

In short, CSTAT means customer satisfaction. And as you might have guessed, the CSAT score is a way to measure that customer contentment with your health practice. More specifically, a CSAT score for a call center represents how well the call center agents overall are meeting the needs of patients.

How To Calculate CSAT In Call Centers

After a conversation with a support agent from the healthcare call center, a survey is sent to that customer or patient. This survey is meant to garner feedback by asking questions such as:
  • How would you rate your experience with our support?
  • How would you rate your experience with our healthcare center?
  • Are you likely to recommend our health services to others?
  • How easy was it to find our location?
  • How easy was it to navigate the website?
  • Was our staff knowledgeable and friendly?
  • How would you rate our services from 1 to 10?
  • Do you feel like you received all the help you needed at our medical center?
  • Is there any extra feedback that you have?
Once the patient provides their survey response, their satisfaction will be calculated. For instance, if each question was given a scale from 1 to 5, then the answers would be considered positive, neutral, or negative as follows:
  • 1 or 2 – negative
  • 3 – neutral
  • 4 or 5 – positive
Thus, you can arrive at a CSAT score formula by dividing the total number of positive responses by the total number of responses multiplied by 100. So for instance, if there were 7 positive responses out of 10 total responses, the CSAT score would be 70%. At the end of the survey, the call center can also ask open-ended questions to allow for the patient to provide feedback that was not available via the preset survey questions.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

The net promoter score is a similar customer satisfaction measurement. The net promoter score focuses on loyalty in addition to satisfaction alone. The results of an NPS survey are more binary. On a rating scale of 1 to 10, any answers that are below a 6 are considered detractors. Promoters are people who answer a 9 or 10.

How To Improve CSAT Scores In Your Call Center

CSAT score improvements include comprehensively solving the patient’s problem, proper escalation protocols for the right person, following up consistently, and quick response times. Now let’s talk about some other specific ways that you can improve CSAT scores:

1. One-On-One Communication

Despite the rise of technology, many people still want to speak with somebody one-on-one. This can happen via email messaging or over the phone. It makes them feel like they’re truly heard. Contrast this with simply getting an automated message from a chatbot AI.

2. Monitoring The Right Metrics

Data is power when measuring customer satisfaction. A call center should understand how to address key KPIs such as AHT (Average Handling Time), average first response time, and personableness of call center agents.

3. Enhance Performance With Key Technologies

While it’s true that one-on-one communication is sometimes the best way to go, technology is important as well. In today’s day and age, the additional costs and time required to send automated messaging and provide AI-assisted service is minimal. It should be considered as an addition to your full service offering for scalability reasons.

4. Reviews

Continue to review CSAT scores and understand what areas need the most improvement. Take action items every quarter to ensure that your call center is leaving patients satisfied.

5. Reduce The Dead Air Ratio

Dead air means that there are elongated periods or pauses in which the customer simply hears silence. Patients today are very impatient, so the less dead air time that you can create with your call center systems, the more satisfied they will be.

Improving Your Healthcare Call Center CSAT – Conclusion

Reach out to Guideway Care to understand how our medical call center solutions can help your medical care facility. From appointment scheduling to patient care coordination to insurance verification to inbound calls, including our nurse triage service, which helps deliver timely, clinically guided patient support over the phone, our staff is highly trained in patient satisfaction. Focus on achieving the best health outcomes for your patients while allowing our experts to provide a streamlined form of communication and customer service for all their needs.
What Are HCAHPS Scores, and Why Are They Important?

What Are HCAHPS Scores, and Why Are They Important?

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If you’re a healthcare provider, you’ve probably heard of HCAHPS scores. But what do they entail? Why are they important? HCAHPS (the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey) is a tool that measures patient satisfaction. It’s used to assess the level and quality of care patients receive in hospitals across the country. Developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS), it’s designed to give hospitals and other healthcare organizations insights into how well they serve their patients.

HCAHPS scores are based on patient experience surveys that ask questions about the patient’s quality of care. The survey covers various topics, including communication with doctors and nurses, pain management, cleanliness of the hospital environment, and overall satisfaction. The survey is administered within two days of discharge, and results are used to compare hospitals on a national level.

Read more: 4 Strategies for Improving HCAHPS Scores.

We will explain why HCAHPS scores are important and how hospitals can use this information to improve patient care.

What Are HCAHPS Scores?

HCAHPS survey consists of 27 questions that measure different aspects of patient care, including communication with doctors and nurses, cleanliness of the hospital environment, medication management, transitions from hospital to home care, and discharge instructions. The survey is administered at various points throughout a patient’s stay in a hospital or medical facility so that healthcare providers can better understand and improve their patient experience.

These questions are categorized into:

a) Communication with physicians

b) Communication with nurses

c) Responsiveness of hospital staff

d) Pain management

e) Communication about medications

f) Discharge information

g) Overall rating of the hospital care.

The survey asks respondents for some demographic information. These include gender, race/ethnicity, insurance status, age, and education level.

Why Are HCAHPS Scores Important?

HCAHPS scores provide an essential measure of patient satisfaction and inform many decisions related to the quality of care provided by healthcare organizations. Here are the benefits  of collecting HCAHPS scores:

1. Improved Quality of Care:

Healthcare providers use the data collected from the survey to identify areas where they need to improve their care and services. The information can provide insight into how patients feel about the quality of care they receive, thus allowing healthcare organizations to make changes that will increase patient satisfaction.

2. Better Patient Engagement:

HCAHPS surveys allow healthcare providers to receive feedback from their patients, which allows them to engage with their patients and build trust.

3. Increased Revenue:

High HCAHPS scores result in higher reimbursement rates from government payers such as Medicare and Medicaid and private payers. This can result in increased revenue for healthcare organizations.

4. Increased Transparency:

HCAHPS scores provide a more transparent view of the quality of care offered by a healthcare organization. The survey results are available to the public, so patients can make better-informed decisions about which provider they want to use. For example, value-based oncology care includes factors such as cost and quality, with HCAHPS scores providing valuable information on the latter.

Healthcare patient engagement is a critical factor in the vital success of healthcare organizations. HCAHPS scores are one of many ways hospitals measure patient satisfaction, giving them insight into how well they meet patients’ needs. Contact Guideway Care for the best patient engagement solutions and tools.

The Impact of Communication on Patient Engagement

The Impact of Communication on Patient Engagement

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Communication is key to a successful patient engagement strategy. Healthcare organizations must establish effective communication channels to keep patients informed and involved in their care. When patients feel like they are part of the decision-making process and have a voice in their care, they are more likely to be engaged in their treatment.

Patient-self reporting has become an increasingly important tool for healthcare organizations to use to engage patients and ensure their compliance with treatment plans. By leveraging patient-generated data, such as activity trackers, wearable sensors, and questionnaire responses, providers can get better insight into a patient’s overall health and monitor their progress more effectively.

Read more: ePROs: What is Electronic Patient Reported Outcomes?

Patient engagement and communication are interrelated and essential components of successful healthcare delivery. By creating an effective communication plan, providers can ensure that they are providing patients with the best care possible and fostering a trusting relationship between provider and patient. Read on to understand the impact of communication on patient engagement and how to use it for improved outcomes.

Benefits of Effective Communication for Patient Engagement

Effective communication with patients is critical for improving patient engagement and satisfaction. Some benefits include the following:

a) Improved Quality of Care

When communication between healthcare providers and patients is clear, it can lead to better quality care. This is because the patient can provide valuable feedback that helps guide treatment decisions.

b) Increased Patient Involvement in Treatment

Improved communication can increase patient involvement in their care, leading to better outcomes. For example, oncology care teams can discuss treatment goals and options with the patient in an open dialogue, helping them make informed decisions about their care.

c) Improved Patient Outcomes

Studies have shown that better communication between healthcare providers and patients leads to improved health outcomes and higher satisfaction levels for both parties. This is because clear communication encourages shared decision-making and allows patients to express their concerns or questions.

d) Increased Patient Satisfaction

Effective communication makes patients more likely to be satisfied with their care. This can lead to improved long-term relationships between healthcare providers and patients and increased referrals from satisfied patients.

Tips To  Improve Patient Engagement Through Communication

The impact of communication on patient engagement is a crucial factor in the success of any healthcare organization. Effective communication helps establish trust and create meaningful relationships between patients and providers, leading to better care outcomes. To maximize the effectiveness of patient engagement, it’s important to incorporate best practices into your organizational communications strategy. These include:

a) Establishing clear expectations: Setting expectations helps both parties understand their roles and responsibilities and how communication should be conducted.

b) Being responsive: Keeping your patients informed promptly can go a long way in creating a positive experience.

c) Utilizing technology: Healthcare providers must embrace new technologies and digital tools to keep up with the constantly changing landscape of healthcare and patient engagement.

d) Empowering patients: Patients should be encouraged to ask questions, discuss their concerns, and actively participate in their care plan decisions.

Contact Guideway Care for the best healthcare patient engagement solutions. Our experts are dedicated to helping you optimize your patient engagement strategies and provide the best care for patients.

What Is Patient Experience and Why Is the Concept So Important?

What Is Patient Experience and Why Is the Concept So Important?

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According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ),  patient experience entails all interactions shaped by an organization’s culture that affect patient perceptions across the continuum of care. Patient-centered care is essential in providing patients with the best healthcare and quality of life. To accomplish this, healthcare centers should involve patients in their decisions, provide comprehensive and culturally competent care, ensure patient safety is upheld at all times, promote healthy living initiatives, and create a positive patient experience.

Read more: What Is Person-centered Care, and How Can it Improve Healthcare?

When creating a positive patient experience, healthcare centers need to focus on more than just medical treatments. Patient experience encompasses the entire journey from initial contact with the healthcare provider to post-treatment follow-ups. This includes interactions with the front desk staff, nurses, and doctors, treatment plans and protocols, discharge instructions, billing processes, and more.

We will explain why patient experience is so vital to the healthcare system.

What Are the Elements Involved in Patient Experience?

The patient experience involves many interconnected elements that play a role in creating a positive healthcare encounter. These elements include:

a) Communication – Patients must articulate their concerns and needs, understand the language and terminology used, and receive clear answers from healthcare professionals.

b) Accessibility – access to services, appointments, and specialists should be convenient for patients.

c) Empathy – empathy is key to providing an excellent patient experience. Healthcare staff must understand patients’ perspectives and provide them with respect, support, and compassion.

d) Respect – patient experience is a human experience and requires healthcare professionals to treat all patients fairly regardless of race, gender, religion, or sexuality.

e) Quality – the quality of care should meet the highest standards for everyone. This includes providing up-to-date technology, appropriate resources, and evidence-based treatments.

f) Engagement – healthcare providers should involve patients in decision-making to ensure their wishes are heard and considered.

g) Education – providing information on preventive measures and treatment options helps patients make the right decisions about their health care.

Benefits of Positive Patient Experience

A patient should feel like they are in safe and capable hands when receiving care. Here are the benefits of patient experience to a healthcare organization:

1) Improved Health Outcomes

Patients who feel like their healthcare provider respects them may be more likely to follow the treatment plan and take recommended medications. This improves health outcomes as patients become more engaged in their care.

2) Increased Patient Satisfaction

Patients want to feel heard and taken seriously when discussing their health concerns. A patient experience that fosters trust and communication between patients and healthcare providers helps increase patient satisfaction.

3) Improved Safety

When healthcare staff has the resources to focus on patient experience, they can put more emphasis on safety protocols. This includes ensuring that procedures are done correctly, and that proper records are kept. This helps prevent errors and improves patient safety in the long term.

4) Lower Costs

Patients who receive positive care experience tend to require fewer tests and treatments due to improved health outcomes. Additionally, increased patient satisfaction leads to better engagement which can help prevent costly hospital readmissions.

Patient experience is an essential aspect of ensuring quality healthcare for all. It focuses on understanding how patients perceive their interactions with healthcare providers and facilities, including their overall satisfaction, trust, and confidence in their care. Guideway Care guide programs can help you in improving patient experience. Our solutions provide a more connected and secure way of delivering patient care.

Contact Center Lessons To Improve the Patient Experience

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Healthcare providers are under pressure to improve the patient experience. Patients expect their medical providers to provide a highly organized, efficient, and personalized experience. With the rise in competition, providing excellent customer service has become essential for healthcare organizations seeking to maintain their reputation and stand apart from the competition. There are many ways to improve patient satisfaction and ensure healthcare organizations provide the best service possible. For example, having a well-organized system for tracking patient inquiries, such as using software to ensure the correct information is being sent out promptly, can help streamline the process and ensure no one falls through the cracks. Read more: Your Quick and Simple Guide on How to Improve Patient Satisfaction in Hospitals. One way that healthcare organizations can improve the patient experience is by ensuring effective communication with their patients. Contact centers are one of the most effective tools for providing exceptional customer service. These centers allow organizations to quickly and efficiently answer patient inquiries, provide updates on progress and treatment plans, address any concerns or questions, and provide general information about the organization’s services. For healthcare contact centers to be successful, certain best practices should be followed. These include:

1) Real-Time Customer Service

Electronic health records (EHR) are a must for any healthcare organization in today’s digital age. This system allows contact centers to access patient information and provide real-time customer service quickly. For example, a patient may request a test result, and the contact center can quickly pull up the results from the EHR and provide them to the patient.

2) Automation

Automating appointment scheduling and check-ins is an effective way for contact centers to streamline their operations. Automation also allows patients to access the necessary services they need quickly. By leveraging technology such as automated check-in, voice bots, and personalized messages, contact centers can provide a more efficient experience for the patient. Automating manual processes like appointment scheduling and check-ins also eliminates potential delays that could result in missed appointments or long wait times.

3) Data Insights

Data analytics can help contact centers more effectively identify patient behaviors and preferences trends. This can then be used to better tailor services and experiences for the patient. By using data insights, contact centers can gain valuable insights into the needs of their patients and adjust their approaches accordingly.

4) Unified Experience

Creating a unified experience across all customer interactions is essential for improving patient satisfaction. By consolidating all customer interactions into a single contact center platform, healthcare organizations can ensure each interaction is both consistent and personalized. This can help deliver an improved overall experience for the patient, as well as provide detailed analytics that can be used to determine best practices moving forward.

5) Self-Service Options

Self-service options empower patients to contact their healthcare providers on their terms. These can include voice recognition, automated interactive phone systems (IVR), web forms, chatbots, and other automated services. By allowing patients to take control of their experience and get answers quickly and easily, healthcare organizations can reduce call center volume while still delivering a satisfactory experience. Guideway Care offers the best medical call center services. We emphasize ensuring every patient experience has been taken into account. Our contact center services are designed to provide a positive patient experience with the best customer service – from the initial call through the appointment reminder system and communication follow-up.

Why Patient Education Vital for Engagement & Better Outcomes?

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The internet is a vast medical information resource, but it can be tough to sift through everything and figure out what’s reliable. Physicians often complain that patients come in with pages of “research” that are inaccurate or misleading. Patients need to get their information from credible sources, like their doctors. It is where patient education comes in. Patient education provides medical information so patients can better understand their health condition, make informed decisions, and participate in their care. When patients are educated about their health, they will likely comply with treatment plans and have better outcomes. For example, a healthcare video on hypertension could explain what blood pressure is, what can happen if it’s not controlled, and how to make lifestyle changes to lower blood pressure. A healthcare video production company can work with your organization to develop patient education videos that are engaging and informative. Read on to understand the benefits of patient education and how you can use it to improve patient engagement and outcomes.

1. Patients Are Better Informed About Their Health Conditions and Treatment Options

According to the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), patient education alters consumer knowledge, attitudes, and skills to preserve or improve health. When patients are armed with the correct information, they can make better decisions about their health. For example, a patient with diabetes who understands the importance of diet and exercise is more likely to make lifestyle changes to improve their condition.

2. It Can Improve Patient Compliance With Treatment Plans

HIPAA-compliant patient education software can make it easier for providers to ensure patients understand their treatment plans and take their medications as prescribed. By communicating directly with patients through secure messaging and appointment reminders, providers can help increase patient compliance rates and improve health outcomes.

3. It Can Help Reduce Medical Errors and Misunderstandings

When patients are well-educated about their health and treatment options, they are more likely to be engaged in their care. It can help reduce medical errors, as patients will be more likely to catch things that might have been missed. It can also help to prevent misunderstandings between patients and providers. When everyone is on the same page, it can help to ensure everyone is working together towards the best possible outcome.

4. Healthcare Cost Reduction and Time-Savings

Healthcare centers offering patient education services have been shown to save time and money. It is because when patients are better informed about their health, they make fewer visits to the doctor. They also better understand when they need to see a doctor and when they can take care of themselves. Additionally, patient education services help people manage chronic conditions more effectively. When patients know how to care for themselves properly, they are less likely to experience complications requiring more expensive and time-consuming medical interventions. Guideway Care can make the best healthcare educational videos for your hospital. Our experience in video production, animation, and post-production will ensure your videos are high quality and engaging for patients.

Hospitals and Health Systems

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Empowering Hospitals & Health Systems to Bridge the Activation Gap

Drive Superior Patient Outcomes, Reduce Costs, and Enhance Efficiency with Evidence-Based Patient Activation

Guideway Care’s evidence-based patient activation solution is designed specifically for hospitals and health systems seeking to overcome the challenges of patient non-adherence and fragmented care. By eliminating non-clinical barriers through a blend of activation psychology, advanced technology, and our specially trained Patient Activation Agents (PAA) and Guides (PAG), we help your organization achieve measurable improvements in key performance areas—from boosting HCAHPS scores and reducing HRRP penalties to expanding market share and enhancing operational capacity.

Our Key Outcomes

  • Grow Strategic Specialties

    Our solution targets growth in specialty service lines by connecting patients with the right care at the right time. Clients have experienced increases in specialty case volume by up to 20–25%, fueling revenue growth and reinforcing the value of targeted activation.

  • Improve HCAHPS Scores

    By enhancing patient interactions and ensuring timely follow-up, we significantly elevate the patient experience. Hospitals partnering with Guideway Care have reported improvements of 30–40% in HCAHPS scores, translating into higher patient satisfaction and better reimbursement outcomes.

  • Decrease HRRP Penalties

    Proactive patient activation reduces readmission rates and minimizes the financial impact of HRRP penalties. Our unique solution realizes a 49% reduction in AMI readmissions an average reduction of 32% across all our hospital and health system customers in AMI, CABG, COPD, HF, PN, and Sepsis. Our programs have helped clients achieve a reduction in readmission-related penalties by approximately 25–30%, leading to substantial cost savings.

  • Increase Clinical Capacity

    Offloading non-clinical tasks to our PAAs and PAGs allows your clinical teams to focus on delivering high-quality medical care. This strategic reallocation of resources has been shown to boost clinical capacity by 15–20%, enabling more efficient patient management.

  • Expand Patient Market Share

    Our comprehensive activation strategies not only retain your existing patient base but also attract new patients. Organizations leveraging our solution have observed a market share growth of 10–15% in targeted service areas within a year.

  • Reduce Patient Leakage

    By reinforcing continuity of care, our program helps keep patients within your health system. Effective activation has led to reductions in patient leakage rates of up to 20%, ensuring that care remains centralized and coordinated.

  • Enhance Appointment Adherence

    Personalized reminders and proactive outreach significantly improve the likelihood that patients will keep their appointments. Data shows that our patient activation initiatives can enhance appointment adherence by as much as 35–40%, ensuring consistent care delivery.

  • Activate via Nurse Triage

    Integrating nurse triage with our platform allows for early intervention in resolving patient concerns. This proactive strategy can speed up issue resolution by approximately 25%, reducing delays and preventing unnecessary acute care events as well as improving new patient activation and scheduling by 65%.

Close the Gap with Evidence-Based Patient Activation

It’s time to close the engagement gap in your organization.
Don’t settle for costly programs that maintain the status quo. Download our Short Guide to Evidence-Based Patient Activation to learn how Guideway Care can drive better outcomes and financial performance for you. See the data, case studies, and model behind this proven solution – and discover how to finally achieve the patient engagement breakthrough your team has been looking for. Get the guide now and start your journey to real patient activation and real results.

Evidence-Based Patient Activation Guide

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Why Is The Patient Experience So Important In Healthcare?

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How do we define the “patient experience”?

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the patient experience is defined as the range of interactions that patients have with the healthcare system. This is wide ranging and encompasses their experience with their health plans, doctors, nurses, hospital staff, and facilities. The patient experience, however, is not the same thing as patient satisfaction. Satisfaction has much more to do about whether the patient’s expectations have been met. It’s much more individual and has to do more with what the patient wants, rather than what the patient actually gets. To learn more about the difference between patient experience and patient satisfaction, check out this article: Understanding the Difference Between Patient Satisfaction vs. Patient Experience

Importance of patient experience in healthcare

Although patient experience is not the same as patient satisfaction, the two are related. Patient satisfaction is driven by positive perceptions of the patient experience. According to a Washington Health Alliance Study, the biggest drivers of patient satisfaction were related to these statements:
  • “The provider cared about me as a person.”
  • “The provider listened carefully to me.”
  • “The provider knew important information about my medical history.”
  • “The provider explained things in a way that was easy to understand.”
  • “The provider answered all my questions to my satisfaction.”
According to the AHRQ, improvements in patient experience have been shown to be linked to better outcomes for patients. There is also a big benefit for the business side, including improved patient retention, fewer unnecessary diagnostic tests, and fewer lawsuits.

How Do We Measure Patient Experience?

The most common way that patient experience is measured is through CAHPS surveys. CAHPS stands for Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, and is a survey that is provided to patients to report on their experience. The surveys are designed in such a way that the data can be used for statistical analysis.

How Can We Improve The Patient Experience?

Three ways that healthcare providers can improve the patient experience are to involve patients in their own care, reduce wait times, and make it easy as possible to schedule an appointment. Involving patients in their own care requires keeping patients adequately informed about the details of their care. Most patients do not have a high level of health literacy, and they require education. However, many patients may not have the patience to learn everything there is to know about their care. For this reason, it’s up to the doctors to help them understand the decisions they need to make. Reducing wait times has to do more with how well the organization functions. If there are frequent scheduling problems, then wait times will be extended as a result. Appointment scheduling is made easy by allowing patients to schedule appointments online, ideally through your mobile website. Guideway Care provides healthcare website solutions that integrate with scheduling software, which gives patients more control over their appointments. Making all of these things easy is no small task, and that’s where Guideway Care can help. Guideway Care offers a variety of solutions for healthcare providers to help improve the patient experience on several levels. Learn more about patient experience here: Patient Experience Statistics You Can’t Afford To Ignore

Patient Engagement Review: Why Engaged Patients Have Better Outcomes

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When it comes to health care, some patients are more likely to see the doctor when they feel like their needs are being met. That’s why it’s so important for health care providers to try to meet their patients’ needs as best they can. But sometimes, we need more input from the patient. That’s where patient engagement comes in. There’s a growing body of evidence that shows that engaged patients have better health outcomes. Patient engagement is the key to improving the health and wellbeing of patients. It has been shown to improve patient satisfaction, reduce emergency room visits, and even save lives.

What Engaged Patients Do That Others Don’t

According to the California Healthcare Foundation, patient engagement is the “active involvement of the patient in his/her healthcare” (California Healthcare Foundation, n.d.). They attend their appointments on time and feel comfortable asking questions. They are more likely to take their medications as prescribed and avoid the emergency room when a problem could be solved at the doctor’s office or clinic. They have a better experience, which often leads to them becoming loyal patients and referring family and friends to the doctor. This translates into better health and lower costs for you.

Patient Engagement and Patient Satisfaction

A study done for the California Healthcare Foundation showed that a focus on patient engagement improved satisfaction. Getting online access to health records, for example, allowed them to get a satisfaction rating of 90%. Patients are defined as engaged if they anticipate that they will stay engaged with their healthcare provider. Patients who are not engaged with their healthcare provider are less likely to understand their treatment options and adhere to their treatment plan. They miss opportunities to ask questions and get clear explanations. As a result, they may feel like they weren’t given proper, personalized care. The reality is that they weren’t given the opportunity to engage in the way that was most comfortable for them.

How You Can Improve Patient Engagement In Your Practice

Patient engagement is crucial to achieving the goals of patient-centered healthcare, as it can improve the patient experience, improve outcomes, and save costs. To engage patients, providers need to know the unique needs of their patients and create an experience that matches those needs. The best way to engage your patients is to listen to them, and understand what is most important to them. Then, provide high-quality service, and use the power of relationship building to build a strong connection with your patients so that they feel like you are on their side. Streamlining your services may also have a positive effect on patient engagement. For example, allowing patients to do everything they need to do online will help them take a more active role in their care. Scheduling appointments, viewing appointment summaries, getting access to their electronic medical records (EMR), and communicating with their providers are all things that patients should be able to access online.

Healthcare Engagement Solutions

Guideway Care has a variety of healthcare engagement solutions that you can use in your medical practice. From patient portals to health education and more, Guideway Care has the tools you need to improve patient engagement in your practice.

The Significance of Patient Reviews in Healthcare

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Patient feedback and reviews are an important part of the healthcare system, which can help providers learn about the quality of care their patients received, as well as provide their own feedback on the care they received. Feedback and reviews can improve the quality of care for patients and increase the efficiency of the system as a whole. This article will provide background information on the importance of patient feedback and reviews in the healthcare system, as well as the various ways in which patient feedback and reviews can be incorporated into the healthcare system.

5 Reasons Patient Feedback and Reviews are Important in the Healthcare Industry

Patient Feedback Can Improve The Patient Experience

Feedback from patients can help providers improve the quality of care their patients receive. It can also provide providers with an opportunity to learn about the experiences of the patients they care for, which can help them improve the quality of care they provide. Feedback has been shown to improve the patient experience, which has been shown to increase the likelihood that a patient will return for future visits. Learn more about this: Patient Engagement Statistics

Patient Feedback Can Help Make Sense of Online Reviews

Over the past few decades, we have become accustomed to relying on online reviews as part of the decision-making process when we make these important purchases. While reviews can be a valuable resource, they’re also plagued by a number of shortcomings, including a lack of transparency and the potential for manipulation. By reconciling patient feedback with reviews that you get on Google or Yelp, you can use the information to address shortcomings in your practice and improve your reputation going forward.

Patient Feedback Can Help Improve the Quality of Care

As a healthcare provider, you deserve to get feedback from your patients on your care. By facilitating this feedback, you can improve the quality of the care you provide. That’s why, as part of your overall patient experience, you need to actively solicit feedback from your patients. Many patients have a hard time expressing their concerns, especially to healthcare professionals. They may feel stigmatized due to their situation, or may be embarrassed at their level of health literacy. Getting their feedback can help them take a more active role in their care, and showing that you’re using their feedback to improve their care can improve their satisfaction. It’s a virtuous cycle.

Patient Feedback Can Improve Patient Retention

Acting on feedback from patients can help make care more personalized. This in turn improves the patient experience further, and helps the patient feel as if the care they receive is perfect for them. Being able to ask questions and provide responsive, personalized service and information has an impact beyond boosting patient satisfaction, especially for new patients and patients who have been referred by others. They’re more likely to stay with your practice if they feel that you care about them and their concerns. Want to learn more strategies for improving patient retention? Check out this article: Proven Patient Retention Strategies That Work

Patient Feedback Can Give Your Practice a Competitive Edge in the Market

Customer feedback is the lifeblood of every business, and whether your practice serves a geographic area or is a national one, it’s important to know that patients and patients’ families want to give you feedback, and that you have an opportunity to act on that feedback. By responding to patient feedback, you’re going to build relationships with your patients and build trust, which are the foundation of any strong patient-provider relationship. This trust creates a strong competitive advantage for your practice. Since you’re gathering information from your patients, you may be able to uncover important insights about your practice that can help you improve and grow.

What Benefits Can Patient Satisfaction Surveys Bring?

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Patient satisfaction surveys are an important way to measure how your patients feel about their experience with your practice. Satisfied patients are more likely to recommend your practice to others, and they are also less likely to file complaints. In this blog post, we will discuss the importance of patient satisfaction surveys and how you can use the results to improve your practice! Discover Why Improving CAHPS Patient Satisfaction Scores Matters.

1. Start a Conversation with Patients

One of the most important benefits of patient satisfaction surveys is that they can help you start a conversation with your patients. By asking questions about their experience, you can get feedback that can help you improve your practice. You can also use the results of the survey to show your patients that you care about their experience and that you are committed to improving it!

2. Identify Problems with Your Practice

Another benefit of patient satisfaction surveys is that they can help identify problems with your practice. If you see a pattern of negative feedback, you can take steps to address the issue. This can help prevent dissatisfied patients from leaving your practice and helps ensure that your patients are getting the best possible care!

3. Benchmark Your Practice vs. the Market

Patient satisfaction surveys can be used to benchmark your practice against other practices. By comparing your results to other practices, you can see where you need to improve. This can help you set goals and make improvements that will benefit your patients!

4. Identify the Strengths of Your Practice

In addition to identifying areas for improvement, patient satisfaction surveys can also help you identify the strengths of your practice. This feedback can be used to promote your practice and attract new patients!

5. Support Data-based Decision Making

Patient satisfaction surveys can help support data-based decision-making. By collecting data on your patients’ experiences, you can make informed decisions about how to improve your practice. This data can also be used to justify changes or investments that you make in your practice!

6. Improve Performance

Finally, patient satisfaction surveys can help improve performance. By using the results of the survey to identify areas for improvement, you can make changes that will positively impact your patients’ experience. This can lead to increased satisfaction and loyalty from your patients!

Conclusion

If you are not already using patient satisfaction surveys, we encourage you to start! They are a valuable tool that can help you improve your practice and provide better care for your patients. If you have any questions about how to get started, feel free to contact us! We would be happy to help with your patient engagement statistics.

The Importance of Patient Satisfaction – And How to Improve It

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Did you know that patient satisfaction is one of the most important factors in the success of a healthcare organization? It’s true! In fact, patient satisfaction has been shown to have a direct impact on everything from patient referrals to hospital reimbursement. That’s why it’s so important for healthcare organizations to focus on creating a positive patient experience. In this blog post, we will discuss the importance of patient satisfaction and outline some ways that you can improve your patients’ experiences.

Why Is Patient Satisfaction Important to Hospitals?

Patient satisfaction is important to hospitals for a number of reasons. First and foremost, happy patients are more likely to refer others to your facility. Word-of-mouth is still one of the best forms of marketing, and it’s completely free! Additionally, satisfied patients tend to be more compliant with their treatment plans. This means they’re less likely to experience complications or need readmission to the hospital. And finally, high patient satisfaction scores can lead to increased reimbursement from insurance companies. So, as you can see, there are plenty of good reasons to focus on creating a positive patient experience.

How Can You Improve Patient Satisfaction?

There are a number of ways that you can improve patient satisfaction at your healthcare organization. One of the most important things you can do is to ensure that your staff is providing high-quality care. This means hiring competent and compassionate employees, providing them with adequate training, and ensuring that they’re always putting the patient first. Additionally, you should make sure your facility is clean and comfortable and that your patients have access to all the resources they need. Finally, don’t forget about the little things! Things like a friendly smile or a warm blanket can go a long way in making your patients feel cared for. Learn about how to measure patient satisfaction in health care.

Encouraging Communication

One of the most important aspects of patient satisfaction is communication. Patients should always feel like they are able to communicate freely with their care providers. This means that staff should take the time to listen to patients’ concerns and answer their questions thoroughly. Additionally, patients should be kept up-to-date on their care plans and involved in decision-making whenever possible. By fostering open communication, you can help ensure that your patients feel respected and well cared for. Read more: Contact Center Lessons To Improve the Patient Experience

Cutting Wait Times

Another important factor in patient satisfaction is reducing wait times. No one likes to be kept waiting, and patients are no exception. That’s why it’s so important for healthcare organizations to do everything they can to reduce wait times. This may include things like streamlining the check-in process, increasing staffing levels, and investing in technology that can help speed up care. By reducing wait times, you can help make your patients’ experience more efficient and convenient.

Conclusion

Patient satisfaction is a critical part of the success of any healthcare organization. By focusing on creating a positive patient experience, you can improve patient outcomes, increase referrals, and boost your bottom line. So, why wait? Reach out to us about analyzing patient experience statistics.

Your Quick and Simple Guide on How to Improve Patient Satisfaction in Hospitals

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Are you looking for ways to improve patient satisfaction in hospitals? If so, you’re in luck! In this blog post, we will provide you with a quick and simple guide on how to do just that. Improving patient satisfaction is crucial for hospitals; it can help increase patient loyalty, lead to more positive online reviews, and even boost your bottom line. Keep reading for our top tips on how to improve patient satisfaction! Learn about how to measure patient satisfaction in healthcare.

Train Your Staff in Customer Service Best Practices

One way to improve patient satisfaction is by ensuring that your staff provides great customer service. This includes everything from being friendly and welcoming to patients, to promptly answering their questions and addressing their concerns. Great customer service will make patients feel valued and appreciated, which will go a long way in improving their satisfaction.

Make Your Hospital a Comfortable Place to Be

Another tip for improving patient satisfaction is to make sure that your hospital is clean and well-organized. First impressions matter, so if a patient walks into a messy or disorganized hospital, it will likely negatively impact their opinion of the facility. On the other hand, a clean and organized hospital will give patients a much better impression, making them more likely to be satisfied with their experience overall.

Make Eye Contact and Be Personable With Patients

It may seem like a small thing but making eye contact and being personable with patients can make a big difference in their satisfaction levels. Patients want to feel like they’re being treated as individuals, not just another number. By taking the time to talk to them and get to know them, you can show them that you truly care about their well-being.

Invest in Patient Education

One of the best ways to improve patient satisfaction is to invest in patient education. When patients are well-informed about their health and treatment options, they’re more likely to be satisfied with their care. Patient education can take many forms, from providing educational materials in the waiting room to offering classes and workshops on various health topics.

Handle All Things in a Timely Manner

Finally, one of the most important things you can do to improve patient satisfaction is to ensure that their medical needs are being met in a timely and effective manner. This means providing quality care that meets their expectations. If patients feel like their needs are being neglected or that they are not receiving the best possible care, it will reflect poorly on your hospital and could lead to dissatisfaction. By following these tips, you can improve patient satisfaction in your hospital and create a better experience for everyone involved. If you’re looking for more ways to improve your hospital’s operations, be sure to check out our blog for more great tips or contact us about solutions for healthcare.

Get Your Patients to Use the Patient Portal by These Promotion Tricks

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If you’re a healthcare provider, then you know that a patient portal is a valuable tool for your patients. It allows them to access their medical information from anywhere at any time. However, many patients are not using the patient portal. This is because they don’t know about it or they don’t understand how it can benefit them. In this blog post, we will discuss some tricks for how to promote your patient portal that you can use to get your patients to start using yours!

Promote It in Office With Posters and Brochures

One way to promote the patient portal is by having posters and brochures in your office. This will let patients know that the patient portal exists and how they can benefit from it. You can also have a staff member explain the benefits of the patient portal to patients when they come into the office.

Bring it Up During Your Consultations

Another way to promote the patient portal is by bringing it up during your consultations with patients. You can explain to them how the patient portal can help them stay on top of their health and make sure that they’re always up-to-date on their medical information.

Link to It in Your Email Blasts

If you send email blasts to your patients, make sure to include a link to the patient portal. This will allow patients to easily access the portal and start using it.

Let Patients Register for the Portal In-Office

One way to promote your patient portal is by letting patients register for the portal in your office. This will make it easy for them to get started with using the patient portal and they’ll be more likely to use it if they don’t have to do it on their own.

Feature Your Portal on Your Website

Make sure to feature your patient portal on your website! This will let patients know that it exists and how they can benefit from using it. You can even include a link to the patient portal on your website so that patients can easily access it. By following these tips, you can promote the patient portal and get more patients to start using it. The patient portal is a valuable tool that can help patients stay on top of their health and make sure that they’re always up-to-date on their medical information.

Engaging Patients Beyond the Patient Portal

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Patient engagement is an important concept in healthcare. However, most efforts center around the patient portal, which many clients never or rarely use. So, if you want to get them engaged, you need to meet your patients outside the portal. Here are some ideas on how to do just that.

Why Patient Engagement Matters

There are many reasons why patient engagement matters, but here are a few key ones. Healthcare is changing. The industry used to be about paternalistic care in which the doctor made all the decisions and the patient simply followed directions. However, patients are now more informed than ever before, and they want to be part of their own care. This has led to the rise of consumerism in healthcare, in which patients demand high-quality, cost-effective care that meets their individual needs. Patient engagement is essential for delivering on this new model of care. When patients are engaged, they take an active role in their own health, leading to better outcomes overall.

Going Outside the Patient Portal

Engaging patients beyond the patient portal is important because patients who are engaged tend to have better health outcomes and incur lower costs overall. So, how can you go about engaging your patients? Here are some ideas:
  • 1. Launch wellness campaigns that target specific conditions or groups of patients.
  • 2. Utilize call centers and chatbots to provide support and engagement outside of the portal.
  • 3. Be active on social media, using platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to communicate with patients and promote engagement opportunities.
  • 4. Provide comprehensive patient education materials that can be accessed online or offline.
  • 5. Make it easy for patients to reach you by providing multiple contact options, including phone, email, and live chat.
  • 6. Prioritize patient feedback to understand what is working well and where improvements can be made.
  • 7. Set up your staff for success by training them on how to engage patients in a meaningful way.
When it comes to engaging patients, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Every practice will have its own unique set of challenges and opportunities. However, these are some general strategies that can help get you started. By taking a holistic approach to engagement, you can create an environment in which patients are more likely to take an active role in their care – and reap the benefits that come with it. For more direction on patient engagement and compiling patient engagement statistics, contact Guideway Care. Learn more by reading Why Long-Term Patient Engagement Tools Are Worth It.

Does Patient Satisfaction Impact Reimbursement?

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The concept of patient satisfaction is not new. In fact, it’s been around since the late 1960s when a group of researchers developed the first-ever patient satisfaction questionnaire. It was created to measure how well hospitals were doing in terms of meeting their patients’ needs and expectations. But there are several other factors that play into patient satisfaction which we’ll discuss later on in this post. One thing is for sure, though: patient satisfaction can have an impact on hospital reimbursement!

What Is Patient Satisfaction?

Put simply, patient satisfaction is a measure of how pleased or happy a patient is with their care. It’s important to note that it’s not just about the quality of care provided (although that’s certainly part of it); patients can be happy with their care even if they don’t feel like they received perfect treatment. There are many different ways to measure patient satisfaction, but there are two common ways:
  • 1. The HCAHPS Survey (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) is how most hospitals track their patients’ satisfaction. It’s a standardized survey that focuses on certain aspects of care like communication with nurses, responsiveness of the hospital staff when you need something, whether your pain was well controlled, and more.
  • 2. The CAHPS survey (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) is similar to the HCAHPS survey, but it’s for use in outpatient clinics, dental offices, pharmacies, and other types of health care facilities.

How Can Patient Satisfaction Impact Reimbursement?

If your hospital tracks patient satisfaction scores, then the federal government can use those numbers to determine how much Medicare will reimburse for services. The more satisfied patients are with their care at a particular hospital, the better that hospital’s reimbursement rates are. Note: this is not true of all hospitals; some still get reimbursed using fee-for-service.

How Can I Improve Patient Satisfaction?

Here are some things to focus on when it comes to improving patient satisfaction:
  • 1. Focus on the customer experience.
  • 2. Make sure your staff is friendly, responsive, and helpful.
  • 3. Be open about pricing information so patients can make informed decisions for themselves; avoid any surprise charges or hidden fees that may come up.
  • 4. Institute a standardized system for getting and analyzing patient feedback.
Hospital performance rankings are not the only factor that’s taken into account when it comes to reimbursement, but they can definitely play a role in terms of how much you get paid for services rendered. Patient satisfaction is just one part of making sure your hospital gets reimbursed well. Need help understanding your patient experience statistics? Allow Guideway Care to help you. Want more immediate guidance? Read: How to Measure Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare.

Understanding the Difference Between Patient Satisfaction vs. Patient Experience

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As a medical provider, you know the importance of having happy patients. And when it comes to measuring their happiness, there are two important metrics to evaluate: patient satisfaction vs. patient experience. What exactly do these terms mean? And how are they different? That’s what we’ll be explaining in this blog post.

What Is Patient Satisfaction?

Patient satisfaction is a quantitative metric that measures the patient’s level of happiness at any given point in time. It asks them to rank their experience from one to five stars, with five being “very satisfied.” During your initial visit with a new patient, you’ll typically document this rating on a form called an HCAHPS survey (Healthcare Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems). This data can then be compared against other providers who see similar patients. This allows for comparison between individual physicians as well as across larger groups, such as hospitals or medical practices. In addition to grading overall satisfaction levels, these surveys also ask specific questions about how long it takes before they were seen by someone, how often they were able to get in touch with someone about their questions, and how comfortable they felt discussing sensitive topics.

What Is Patient Experience?

Patient experience is a qualitative metric that looks at the patient’s actual experiences through a series of surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc. This can be done on an individual level by asking for feedback from every patient who comes into your practice or it could be done via social media sites like Yelp where patients leave reviews without being directly solicited by anyone.

How Patient Satisfaction and Patient Experience Differ

What’s the difference between patient experience vs. patient satisfaction? While satisfaction measures what people think of providers based on preconceived notions (often formed from marketing materials) and past experiences, experience goes beyond opinions to uncover the “why” behind them. For example: A new family doctor might have a perfect HCAHPS rating, but if they can’t listen to patients’ concerns and rush them in and out of the office without spending any time on treatment options or referrals, then their overall happiness won’t last long. Another example: A dermatologist might have a lower patient satisfaction rate because new patients don’t find it easy to book an appointment online so they call repeatedly only to be told there’s no availability for weeks. But if those same people had access via video chat, this would address their underlying concern (which is convenience) while increasing both satisfaction and experience at the same time. As you can see from these examples above, understanding how your metrics differ will help guide better marketing efforts as well as improve patient experience. For more assistance with how to measure patient satisfaction in healthcare, speak with Guideway Care. We offer patient conversion solutions that will work for you.

How to Design a Waiting Room Your Patients Will Love

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Doctors are faced with a difficult task when it comes to designing their waiting room. For them, it must be functional, holding the correct number of patients while allowing for easy flow in and out. But patients want to feel comfortable while they wait for their appointment. It can be difficult to strike the right balance, which is problematic, given your waiting room is a critical component in healthcare CRM. Luckily, there are some simple design tricks that will help you create an amazing waiting room that will make your patients love you! Here are a few waiting room ideas to keep in mind.

14 Tips for Patient-Centric Clinic Waiting Room Design

  1. Include high-quality art to make your medical or dental waiting room feel more welcoming.
  2. Place plants in the corners of the patient waiting room, adding life and visual appeal.
  3. Make sure that there is adequate lighting during both day and nighttime hours (consider using lamps instead of overhead lights). This will help ease any potential anxiety about power outages.
  4. Use neutral tones and warm colors to help patients feel more at ease in your healthcare waiting room, such as beige or light brown with pops of green color.
  5. Keep the temperature comfortable (between 68-72 degrees Fahrenheit). If you do not have air conditioning, consider using a fan during particularly hot days to enhance the waiting room experience.
  6. Increase the noise level in your waiting room. If patients are able to concentrate on their music or entertainment, they will be less likely to get frustrated with the wait time.
  7. Make sure that information is clear and easy to read for your patients. This includes any signs in your waiting room along with appointment cards/reminders if you have them available.
  8. Offer a number system to allow your patients to feel more in control of their wait time. This will also help lessen the likelihood that they will have an outburst due to frustration or anxiety from waiting too long.
  9. Consider having magazines available for those who are interested as well as water and other beverages.
  10. Make sure that your staff is friendly and approachable. Your patients should not be afraid to ask questions if they have them!
  11. Keep the area where patients are waiting discreet so they do not feel too seen.
  12. Allow for room between patients. This is especially important since the pandemic began.
  13. Make sure your furniture is ergonomic.
  14. Ensure you have spaces that are suited to those with mobility aids.
Have you already made the effort to enhance your space but still find the patient experience in your waiting room is lacking? Contact Guideway Care. In addition to our various digital healthcare engagement solutions, we can offer some guidance on enhancing your physical spaces.

How to Measure Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare

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Why is patient satisfaction important?

In healthcare, competition for the share of the wallet of patients is increasing, making it even more important to keep patients satisfied with the care they receive. If patients are happy with their experience, they are less likely to switch providers. It is also important to note that patient satisfaction does not equate to the quality of healthcare. While the quality of healthcare your practice provides may be impeccable, patients may not perceive that if the receptionist was rude or they waited a few minutes past their appointment time to be seen and that is the patient satisfaction aspect.

Why Is Measuring Patient Satisfaction Important?

Knowledge is power and in the case of patient satisfaction in healthcare, the knowledge comes from data. By tracking a set of important metrics, you can formulate a plan to improve or maintain patient satisfaction and continue to keep your patients loyal and happy. Click here to learn more about how to improve the patient experience.

What Are the Main Ways to Measure Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare?

Request and Monitor Feedback

A great way to measure patient satisfaction is simply by asking the patients directly about how they view their interaction with your practice. This can be done in the form of a written survey, a follow-up call, a Facebook post, or even a text. Receiving feedback from patients allows your healthcare practice to be held accountable for the patient’s experience while interacting with your organization. Patients who are not happy with their experience, will not necessarily point it out unless they are asked. For best results, allow the patient the option to remain anonymous, this can be achieved by providing a “patient feedback” box in the reception or by sending out an online survey that does not require a name. The results from the survey, follow-up calls, and other forms of feedback should be tracked and monitored for trends. Turn the results into patient experience statistics that can be analyzed. Once analyzed, develop a plan to maintain or improve the metrics.

Follow Your Online Ratings

Our world becomes more and more digitalized every day and more people than ever rely on internet research to make healthcare decisions. Google and yelp reviews are two important places to start following to learn about how your patients view their interaction with your practice. You can also use google to find third-party review sites that may name your practice. Many of these third-party websites calculate patient satisfaction statistics in the form of a score assigned to your practice. These scores can be very helpful but it is important to understand how they are calculated to determine how well they align with your goals. For more nuanced guidance, contact Guideway Care.

Why Customer Complaints Are Good For Your Business

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Patients have always shared their medical practice experiences with friends and family. Now, they share them with the entire world. Patient and customer complaints can easily reach an audience of thousands through your Google My Business page and other sites, such as Yelp. This can be pretty bad for your practice. However, we also think that—with the right approach—getting and handling customer complaints can ultimately enhance your practice.

There Will Always Be Complaints

First, let’s get this fact out of the way: there is nothing you can do, no approach you can take, that will prevent 100% of patient complaints. There will always be someone who comes in with unrealistic expectations, or who is just having a bad day and decides that Yelp is the place to let off some steam. And, if we are being honest, you too will have bad days where your service just isn’t what you want it to be, and patients will rightly complain about that. But it is important to remember that complaints aren’t just negatives; they are also tools for improving your practice.

Complaints Highlight Problems

To be fair, not always. Sometimes, patients are upset about things outside your control. But in many cases, they highlight problems you do have control over. When you listen to feedback, it helps you see things you might otherwise be blind to. They say knowledge is power, and they’re right. The better you understand where your practice is failing, the better you will be at making targeted changes. And in many cases, making these changes and validating the patient can turn them into a dedicated part of your practice. Not quite convinced that complaints are good for growth? Here are a few things to consider. • Complaints Are a Reality Check: It is easy to believe all is well and good if no one is telling you anything different. • Healthcare Call Centers Can Help Manage Them: If you don’t have the bandwidth to process negative feedback directly, you can outsource complaints to a specialized call center. • You Learn About Your Patients: It is easy to assume that since you know your field, you know what patients want and need, but we promise, there are some gaps in your knowledge. • They Open Other Lines of Conversation: Patient engagement solutions can cover a lot, but listening to and validating a complaint will do far more in getting a patient to open up. Ready to make more out of your customer feedback, both positive and negative? Our healthcare internet marketing can help. Contact us to learn more.

The Ultimate Guide to Patient Experience

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The patient experience isn’t just about satisfaction; it encompasses all interactions patients have with healthcare as a whole. Unfortunately, patient experience statistics consistently show that that people find these interactions to be lacking. It is essential that all medical practices have a firm grasp on how to improve patient experience and what experiences matter to patients.

Key Steps to Improving the Patient Experience

If you aren’t sure where to get started, that is understandable. The topic is a complex one, and since people change, it will evolve with time. However, there are a few key steps you can take right now to help enhance the patient experience.

Maximize Your Online Presence

And by this, we don’t just mean have a website and social media. We mean you should ensure that your online presence offers maximize value. You want to create content that helps and empowers patients. Think about detailed explanations of service, patient guides, and online forms.

Digitize Your Scheduling

Many patients aren’t interested in talking to medical providers on the phone. They prefer texting, filling out forms, and pretty much any method that allows them to multitask while taking care of business. If your practice doesn’t yet have an online scheduling platform that allows patients to book, cancel, and set reminders, now is the time to make the switch.

Train Staff in Customer Service

We tend to think of customer service as a retail concept, but in truth, it is part of the patient experience. Your staff needs to be trained in how to make the patients feel comfortable, valued, and like they are empowered participants in their treatment.

Improve the Waiting Room

There are few places patients dislike being in more than the typical doctor’s office or hospital waiting room. Focus on improving it. Add better furniture, softer lighting, better entertainment options, and outlets for charging.

Reduce Wait Times

Ultimately, no waiting room will ever be so wonderful that patients are happy to spend all day in there. This means you need to do what you can to reduce wait times. A patient engagement company can help you digitize your paperwork processes to help move patients in and out faster.

Follow Up With Patients

The best way to know where you need to improve your patient experience is by asking your patients what they enjoyed and what they feel is lacking. You can usually do this through your patient tracking system if you have one. To discover more solutions for enhanced patient experience, contact Guideway Care.