Why Do Patients Leave Your Medical Practice?
Patients are always an important part of not only a practice but the healthcare industry in general, which revolves around them. Patient satisfaction in healthcare is thus a crucial element to consider, which further ensures the growth of the particular practice, and at the same time, helps the medical industry to be strong and tough to its motto of catering to the patients.The leaving of the patients from a healthcare unit or practice is always alarming for a practice, where the practice should readily be addressing any such concerns in order to be the go-to place for the patients.
While talking about people leaving practices, and before rushing down to how the patients can be checked from leaving the medical practices, it is important to understand the type of leaving. While looking at the patients leaving medical practices, there are two forms of patients leaving practices:
Temporary
The patients sometimes leave a particular medical practice on a temporary basis. Long wait times and emergencies are often the reasons for the patients who leave a practice temporarily. However, one major indicator of the patients who leave practice on a temporary basis is that they show how enthusiastic they are to come back and continue with the appointment or the treatment.
Permanent
At other times, the patients leave a particular medical practice on a permanent basis. The leaving of the patients on a permanent basis is actually what is worrying. A permanent leaving of the patient declares that the particular patient who is bidding adieu to the practice will never come back to the same. You can easily understand that a patient is leaving your practice permanently because there will simply be no urge to come back to your practice again for such patients. There will thus be a resounding vibe of resignation, utter chaos on the minds of such patients, and ill feelings, as well, towards the practice.
The patient leaving practices is not a new thing, Patients across the world either like a practice or don't and they decide to leave or stay accordingly. The hospitals and medical practices have seen leaving patients for decades on end before the present time. Therefore, it is nothing new if you recently have found out that a considerable number of patients leave your practice annually.
If you are now wondering why the patients leave a particular practice, then there can be numerous reasons for the same. The first or the most important reason is that they are not satisfied with your practice service.
What is patient satisfaction?
Patient satisfaction can be defined as the extent to which the patients are satisfied with a particular practice, both inside and outside of the medical office.
Satisfied patients have always returned back to a particular healthcare unit or practice, which has further led to boosting the patient inflow and the revenues of the provider. However, ensuring patient satisfaction is not a piece of cake really!
Patient satisfaction in healthcare is a crucial parameter that can only be satisfied with good service, much like the customers in any other industry. However, in the healthcare industry, it is tougher to meet than it is when it comes to the other industries. This is because the medical industry deals with fellow human beings, and their different physical and mental health conditions, and a lot more dedication, passion, hard work, and emotional quotient, are involved in it.
However, patient satisfaction in healthcare is what most practices and healthcare units look up to. An improvement in patient satisfaction means a lot for these practices, which strive to house the best doctors, nurses, medical staff, and cutting-edge medical office and practice management solutions from trusted providers like GrowPractice. All of these are installed in most of today's practices to improve the patient experiences and leave them satisfied. Improving the patient experience is thus, the first step toward lifting the patient satisfaction rating.
What is the patient experience in healthcare?
The patient experience in healthcare is the experience that a patient or a group of patients have in the healthcare industry or the chosen practice. The patient experience lies at the core of patient satisfaction, so much so that the patient experience in healthcare is known as the guiding factor of patient satisfaction. Therefore, if the patients are leaving your medical practice, then clearly they are not satisfied with your practice services and are asking for a better service.
We have already seen how crucial a role patient satisfaction in healthcare plays, which is influenced by the patient care experience. Now, we will learn about the most prominent factors that lead patients to leave your medical practice. These factors also directly/indirectly influence the patient experience and lower the patient satisfaction rating of the practice too.
Prominent Reasons Why the Patients Leave your Medical Practice and How to Retain Them Effortlessly?
Recent surveys say that 1 out of 3 patients would leave the medical practice in the times upcoming. Such is the competition that is raging in the healthcare sector today. This is why your practice should aim to serve the patients best in order to not let others or your rivals take your place in the future. However, to serve the patients in a way that they would stay with your practice, you need to understand why they usually tend to leave or might also be leaving your practice.
So, here's looking into the most common reasons why the patients usually leave your medical practice and how you can avoid them from doing that:
Patient scheduling problems
The first-ever interaction between a patient and a practice occurs during the time of the booking of patient appointments and this phase is a crucial one to make a lasting impression on the patients' minds. Here, if the practice is not equipped with online methods of scheduling patients' appointments, then that is a major turn-off for the patients.
Around 64% of the patients now have been surveyed to prefer online booking of appointments over the earlier method of booking appointments. Besides, it is also important to note that the practices are largely going online here in the patient appointments. As far as the latest survey reports, 66% of the US healthcare systems are now providing the patients with the facility of booking appointments online. GrowPractice, with its patient and practice management solutions, can stand really effective here to make patient appointments easy and hassle-free, to retain them right at the first instance.
Longer wait times
The patients now don't like to wait at all. Come on, they are also busy in their own lives, which means that your practice needs to be prompt and automatic to engage them promptly without leaving them waiting. The long waits in the intake and check-ins after appointment bookings are the main reasons that cause a dip in the overall patient satisfaction. However, with GrowPractice's paperless intake forms, instant check-ins, digital billings, and more, you can easily improve the patient experience.
Lack of transparency in wait times
Wait times have been the most frustrating part of doctor visits for 43% of the patients, say reports. Besides, 53.2% of the patients said knowing the length of the wait time earlier would influence their experience. Therefore, this lack of transparency in wait times should be mitigated by having staff or devices inform the patients of their wait
Expensive healthcare services
The cost of healthcare services has risen manifold today. Besides, 77% of the patients have reportedly said that the cost of healthcare services is unpredictable. All of these are reasons enough why you need to balance the cost of the healthcare services you offer and keep the same affordable.
Lack of transparency in the cost of the healthcare services
Transparency is key and more so when it comes to the cost of healthcare services. At least 65% of the patients think so! Young patients, including 41% of the millennials request cost estimates. Besides, 21% of baby boomers and 18% of seniors have also begun to request the same before undergoing treatment.
Therefore, you need to understand how the patient care experience depends on the transparency of the cost of healthcare to ease improving patient experience.
Feelings of neglect
The patients come to practices with an ailing self, a friend, or a relative who is ill and needs treatment. Here, if the patients or their friends, or relatives are not cooperated with or engaged properly in the practice, then neglect often takes birth. This certainly hampers patient satisfaction in healthcare. To improve the same, the practice needs to engage patients properly, talk to them, deal with them politely, aid them with anything they want, and support them constantly.
Some other important reasons why the patients may leave your medical practice are:
GrowPractice makes improving patient experience easy!
The medical practices of today need to have improved medical office software and systems that deliver prompt results, optimum security, trust, fast billing, prompt processing of medicare claims, optimum patient engagement, and more to improve the patient experience in healthcare. The improving patient experience would then lead to a boost in patient satisfaction in healthcare. All of these can be brought by GrowPractice, which is a trusted medical office software and systems provider that make the whole process of patient appointment to the follow-up of patients easy and effective for the medical practices. With GrowPractice, you will no longer have to worry about patient experience or patient satisfaction anymore!
