Creative Ways to Increase Patient Satisfaction

The healthcare industry is a gigantic industry. The global size of the medical industry was last reviewed at around $193.83 billion in 2020, which was estimated to reach somewhere around $372 billion by 2022.

The medical industry or healthcare industry, as it is termed, revolves around the patients and the care for them that is extended by healthcare units like hospitals, clinics, physician practices, etc. Now, as the whole of the industry revolves around the patients and how they are cared for, it is quite obvious that they need to be adequately helped with all of their mental or physical diseases. Proper care extended to the patients is nothing more than the duty of the medical practices or healthcare units but above all what they really need to be bothered about is patient satisfaction.

What makes patient satisfaction in healthcare so crucial?

A medical service provider like a practice or a healthcare unit needs to grow in terms of size and revenue. Growth is the main aim of any business and the healthcare practices are not exceptions to it and for the growth of the latter, positive patient experiences really matter a lot.

Patient satisfaction is the measurement of the satisfaction of the patients of practices, hospitals, and healthcare units. Patient satisfaction is usually represented as rates denoted by numbers that end in percentages. These rates point out how satisfied the patients are after the healthcare service they receive. Patient satisfaction has been hugely eyed by the modern clinics and healthcare service providers to review their service and improve their revenues. However, many practices are still unknown to their patient experiences and are little informed about why they need to monitor patient satisfaction in healthcare to improve patient experience and grow their businesses. This is why we have planned to bring in a list of useful benefits that the practices can enjoy if they take patient satisfaction into consideration for their system. So, without further ado, let's dive into them:

Helps in performance review - Maintaining patient satisfaction surveys helps the practices take a look at the performance of their staff, system, and the management of them in general. It is really necessary that the practices monitor the workflow of the system and review it weekly or monthly in order to change and update the system and the software that is used in the medical office and other processes.

Retains Patients - Patient satisfaction is a crucial thing to consider when it comes to patient retention. Practice often complain that they are losing out on their patients or that the old patients are never coming back to them for further check-up and diagnoses. This is mainly because of the lack of patient satisfaction that they ensure.

Leads to revenue growth - Satisfied patients lead to a growth in the practice revenues. The patients who are satisfied with a particular practice and its services shall definitely come back to the practice or the doctor who sits in there again in any case of future troubles with the same or any other ailments, thereby multiplying the practice revenues, which basically depends on the patients.

Boosts morale - When the patients are satisfied and they convey their satisfaction to the practice either physically or via feedback forms or online surveys, it is bound to make things happier for any practice. Whether it is for the practice manager or the staff working there satisfied patients boosts the general morale.

Fosters trust - Credibility is something that comes with proper service. Patients, when properly cared for, bring in credibility for any practice. This trust works a long way ahead in the future for practices.

Helps in patient acquisition -

Practices that bring decent care and patient management for the patients, are bound to see more new patients ahead. Patient satisfaction thus is a major contributing factor to patient acquisition.

Helps in business expansion - Practices that extend proper services for the patients, ought to prosper. The healthcare units or medical service providers that boast of satisfied patients go a long way in adding to the overall patient satisfaction that it extends.

Exploring a bunch of creative ways to enhance the patient experience for practices

Improving patient experience is something that every practice pursues but only some manage to attain. This is because of numerous issues that often go unnoticed in practices. However, the practices can certainly resort to a handful of creative ways to boost the patient experience in healthcare.

Here's a list of things that the practices can adopt, which would lead to improving patient experiences:

Implement online patient appointment schedulers

It is the booking of the appointment that is the primary step a patient needs to take, coming right at the first of their healthcare journey. Physical patient appointment bookings and telephonic bookings of patient appointments were the earlier norms. This changed with time and the development of cutting-edge patient appointment software and systems. Now more and more practices are opting for online patient appointments. With GrowPractice as the only reliable provider of these software, practices claim now to reduce more than 89% of the patient no-shows.

Greet your patients well

A practice must greet their patients well and then promptly look after their reason for appointments and make them clear about their wait times then and there itself. Being polite with the patients, responding to them as they ask, and setting the right expectations are always among the essential things that greatly influence patient satisfaction.

Ramp up your practice visually

It is all-important to boost your practice with the new-age software and system for the medical office but it is also essential that the practice looks visually engaging. This visual thing has been proven to have a noticeable impact on patient satisfaction. A classic aesthetic setup or one that speaks of the modern world that is neatly decked with useful information, photographs, and visual illustrations are some of the options that you can think of.

Getting the billing done smoothly

The billing process is always a headache for the patients. It is in this step that most patients lose their calm if not with the long wait times they need to stay put. Billing methods for most practices are still in their traditional, lengthy ways that get on the nerves of the patients. Here, if you need to touch patient satisfaction in a good way, then it is important to get advanced billing software systems for your practice that does the billing easily and without any hassles.

Actively engage the patients to avoid the wait time woes

Patient wait time is an obvious reality in practices that needs to be cleverly handled. Research shows that around 84% of the people claim that wait times are 'somewhat important' if not 'very important' to the overall experience of a practice. Besides, around 43% of the patients are of the opinion that the wait times are among the most frustrating parts when it comes to visiting doctors.

All these are reasons enough for practices to seek innovative ways to reduce wait times by engaging the patients all the time. Keeping them informed about their time of visits and that of the tests is an easy and effective way to keep them from waiting. Besides, with the customizable workflow that GrowPractice offers, the practices of the present can make sure that they engage with their patients at every step of their healthcare journey.

Keep abreast of the patient's needs, queries and confusions

A patient, when kept in the waiting, is deemed as among the most unpredictable ones. It is important to consider the fact that the patient's minds are the most active when they wait and this is when they need absolute attention. Therefore, when in a practice, the waiting patients need to have access to all the practice facilities that they need to. Furthermore, there also needs to be someone in the practice who is approachable to the patients and satisfies their queries and clarifies their doubts.

Uphold a patient-first attitude

The patient first is the drive for the practices. The patients need to be given the utmost attention because they are the reason why practices are set up. Therefore, the entire attitude of the practice or a healthcare service provider, including the receptionist, doctors, nurses, and any other healthcare workers as well as practice manager, should be surrounding the patients and keeping them at the forefront of their attention. This will not only help the patients in all of the ways possible but also help the practice to gear up their patient satisfaction.

Enable multiple payment platforms

Payments nowadays are mostly tending to be the digital way. Though the physical method involving cash is still there in many practices, clinics, hospitals, and other healthcare units, the digital/online method of payment is rapidly rising to popularity. A practice cannot go against the flow and this is why it needs to enable an array of payment platforms for the patients, which will allow them to pay the way they prefer.

Preserve the patient's confidentiality

In the healthcare industry, it is essential for the practices and other medical service providers to help maintain the confidentiality of the patients. The HIPAA guidelines would be an important step to go forth with the communication for the practices. Monitoring and preserving patient confidentiality helps practices prosper in terms of patient satisfaction.

Incorporate online patient satisfaction surveys

Patient experience surveys help the practices to ramp up their patient satisfaction rates, thereby improving patient experience. Such surveys and feedbacks give the practice insight into what the patients are thinking about the practice and the care it provides. Therefore, a practice manager should look into incorporating these patient feedback forms and online surveys in order to pay attention to the overall workflow of the practice and all that requires amendments.

Boost Patient Satisfaction with GrowPractice

If you are looking for illustrative patient satisfaction survey examples or wondering about how the patient satisfaction questionnaires would be, then dissolve your worries because GrowPractice is now within your reach to deal with all of the issues with drooping patient experiences. With the advanced patient satisfaction surveys and online reviews that GrowPractice brings your way, monitoring and enhancing patient experience would not be a thing bothering you!

The HIPAA compliant two-way texting, online patient surveys, online payment facilities, smart patient check-ins online, paperless and digital patient intake forms, hassle patient appointments, and more from GrowPractice would not only reduce no-shows, attract and retain patients and boost workflow but also improve the overall quality of care of your practice, along with growing the practice revenues.

GrowPractice claims to have added more than $60,000 worth of revenues per provider. So, don't hesitate to hesitate with the leading medical office and practice management software and systems!