Best Practices to improve Patient Experience

Poor patient engagement

Patient experience accounts for interactions outside the examination room or doctor’s chamber. Whether a patient follows the care plan given by the doctor also impacts on their experience. Often patients fail to follow the care plan which sets back their health outcome, this leads to a bad patient experience. 

Healthcare organizations can play a role by improving patient engagement. Keeping patients engaged throughout their journey can improve communication, relationship, health outcomes, and lead to a superior patient experience. 

• 70% of patients claim that they are most likely to choose healthcare providers who will send emails or SMS to remind them about preventive care. 

By keeping patients engaged by sending relevant emails – schedule/ appointment reminders, health information, or valuable education – you can holistically improve patient experience and satisfaction. 

Lack of technological adoptions

Most industries are busy adopting tools that provide automated management tools to make customer interaction and journey hurdle-free. People are expecting the same from healthcare organizations to provide the same level of convenience. 

• 68% of patients are more likely to opt for medical providers that enable them to schedule, cancel, or change appointments online. 
• 59% of patients from Gen Y are likely to switch doctors for one who offers better online access. 

By utilizing the right management tools you can save time and resources while also preventing patient and employee frustration. When you begin to offer automated reminders or online registration you can focus on providing a warm and good-natured patient experience. 

Not utilizing patient feedback

Organizations that take time to listen to what their patients have to say, instantly upgrade the patient experience. By truly paying attention to their opinion you develop a connection and provide them what they expect from you. 

Being attentive and asking them questions after each appointment “Have I addressed your concerns?” or “Is there anything you want me to elaborate on?”, can show patients that you care about their thoughts and opinion. It shows them that you are listening to them and trying to provide them the experience they deserve. 

You can also deploy automated patient experience and patient satisfaction surveys to request their feedback via email or SMS. 

Now that we have established what may cause patient frustration and lead to patient attrition, let’s learn some best industry practices to improve the patient experience.