Words such as patient experience also patient engagement could have been generally flung around also used in the healthcare sector. But currently, it remains more important to understand their significance. Realizing the worth of these concepts would help you take the first step to build patient experiences also make sure your patients remain satisfied. There is a patient feedback app that can allow you to understand your patients better and receive constructive feedback.
Patient engagement – it indicates an interaction of any patient with the health care provider where the patient remains actively involved in their personal care.
Patient experience – It tells you about the sum of all engagements a patient experiences at several touchpoints in a healthcare facility while looking for healthcare.
Realizing the worth of patient engagement plus patient experience
Patient engagement remains the core thought for all hospitality sectors and healthcare units. It is about helping families plus their families to work actively with the providers of healthcare and supporters towards facilitating their personal care. It should be the willingness of the patients to look for information also education such that they could be more involved in the treatment. Finally, the responsibility of giving the patients the ability to mobilize their experience in healthcare lies with the healthcare experts and facility staff.
On the flip side, the patient experience remains the outcome of every interaction patients come to experience at a given facility. This goes much beyond the patients remaining engaged in their personal care. Every interaction beginning from booking an appointment to making a payment during the time of discharge comes within the umbrella of the patient experience. Hence, medical professionals could have less control over the experience of the patients. Hence, the responsibility of making the patient experience better lies in the management along with doctors.
Methods of improving patient engagement
Provide explanation
Often, patients could misunderstand recommendations also treatments owing to the fact that medical professionals failed in giving a clear explanation. This could negatively affect the patient experience also the clinical outcomes. To look at it the other way, patients who would listen to also involved in the treatment would adhere to the medical recommendations passed on to them. So, ensure that every patient would leave your healthcare facility carrying all the answers – why you would be taking a certain course of treatment, the period of treatment, and also the role of the patient in the treatment.
Hire professional people
There are many healthcare facilities today where the receptionists would be expected to attend to patient inquiries and calls. While this could look like one highly cost-saving option, making one exceptional patient experience would need you to invest in professional services for the helpdesk. Understand why you need excellent helpdesk representatives:
- They would answer your inter-departmental questions
- They would be able to focus on the concerns of your patients also ensure speedy response plus resolution
- They could also contribute in a great manner to your healthcare facility’s program on patient feedback
Leverage technology
Thanks to our latest technology, you could now use tools of health monitoring to measure the health of a patient even after they are discharged. And not just this data is of benefit to doctors, but it also keeps the patients highly in control of their health with their timely updates and checks.
Send reminder and follow-ups
By sending reminders before the appointments plus routine tests also follow-ups after the appointments also several treatment stages, you could communicate to your patients that you remain actively involved in the healthcare. And this could improve your patient experience significantly also increase their level of trust along with your facility to a great degree.
Methods of improving patient experience
Better the communication between your staff
As patient experiences are no longer influenced by quality care, it is of paramount importance that you ensure comprehensive care, which includes easy access, easy payment, information access, etc.
Hence, make sure your staff remains prepared so that your patients are prepared at every step. Your members have to be able to answer questions from your patients about navigation to the facility, accessing different departments, health insurance, billing, etc. While your doctors and health professionals make sure excellent medical care is provided, staff has to be trained to create the perfection of all facilities or interactions that are service-related when a patient visits or stays in the hospital. Certain tips you should remember:
Make sure the response time is limited
Always encourage collaboration in the staff members such that patient information remains available at several touchpoints and they wouldn’t have to repeat
Make sure all patient concerns and feedback are taken into consideration actively while making patient satisfaction better
Deliver care out of compassion
Empathy is one critical component that is exceptional to patient care as patients fighting illness are highly vulnerable. Along with great medical care, they also expect the reassurance that these patients aren’t alone, and they would be soon alright. So, ensure that your doctors also nurses within your facility understand their patients also dilemmas so that they can support them through using treatment. This kind of human feeling can bring a dramatic difference in your facility from that of others.
Offer all kinds of payment plans
With the patients making payments from their pockets more and more, the payment plans have come to become a necessity for most of them. You could tie up health insurance firms so that healthcare plans of benefit can be generated or offer that kind of flexibility while paying in increments. This would help your patients to look for needed medical care while not having to think about the long bills.
Remain transparent
Almost 70 percent of the patients would want to receive clear finance-related communication from their health provider also details on insurance. Be it a couple of charges that are received in the final bill or some side effects in the treatment, ensure that you make your patients know regarding every kind of outcome from before. Your patients won’t have to worry regarding the hidden charges or a kind of surprise reaction towards the treatment. Moreover, ensure that your staff remains trained so that you could explain health insurance-related information to the patients. Maintaining all details, communication, transaction about payment will help the patients establish trust in your healthcare.
Make sure there is excellent hygiene
You can provide excellent medical facilities if and only if you have hygiene in place. When we talk hygiene, it doesn’t simply mean the ward cleaning but also the common areas at the facility, including the washrooms, lounge, waiting area, reception, etc. Make sure that sufficient staff is in place to make sure there is the cleanliness of the entire healthcare facility every time.
Feedback of the patient – key to patient experience plus patient engagement
A trustworthy and reliable medical care or hospital is one where patients would be put first. Irrespective of what you do, it should be your priority to ensure the comfort and ease of your patients. But, how could you be certain that your efforts remain aligned with the expectations of your patients? The answer remains simple – by asking the patients what they want.
piHappiness patient feedback software is designed to give you all the feedback needs you have for your healthcare facility. It helps you to create attractive plus intelligent surveys on patient satisfaction as it comes with an easily usable survey builder, and shares them via several channels, like SMS, email, tablet, mobile app, website, live chat, or even QR code.
