How to Improve Patient Satisfaction
The patients are talking. Are you listening?
Patient satisfaction is the number one reason for repeat business — this is directly related to an open and honest line of communication between patients and doctors (or hospital administrators, in many cases). And returning customers are the motivating factor in your practice experiencing significant success. When a patient feels as though his or her doctor is sympathetic, listens intently and genuinely cares about their health concerns, that person is apt to return. AND spread the good word.
Emphasis on “good.”
There are five basic steps in order for your healthcare practice to improve patient satisfaction:
- Listen to patient needs
- Provide patients a platform to share their feedback
- Improve communication among doctors, staff and patients
- Have follow-up measures in place with all employees
- Hold staff accountable for manner of care and subsequent satisfaction
Having measures in place to deal with feedback — both negative and positive — is important. You need to know the reasons for someone being unhappy with your clinic, and you can only determine that through a patient satisfaction survey — and then you need to adapt and change accordingly. This is not just a “doctor-patient” issue either. Your entire staff needs to feel as part of the whole practice in order for complete and total satisfaction to occur. That one “bad apple” on your staff can cost you money in the long run: expenses wasted in training and wages, the loss of a patient and the subsequent detrimental effects of that dissatisfied person’s word of mouth to other potential customers. And it’s MORE expensive to gain new patients than it is to keep your recurring ones.
Never disregard the opinions of your patients — even if it is something as simplistic as “look” of the waiting area. Going regularly to the doctor is already a hassle and sometimes a traumatic experience, and once within your office, that patient should feel at ease, comforted and treated as the valuable asset they are.
Is your staff on board?
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PatientSurvey.com is a leading provider of Phone, Online and Paper based Patient Satisfaction Surveys across the globe focusing on Healthcare Providers. One of the only solution provider handling all three mediums using a Single Platform.
Our products and services are being used across a number of different Healthcare Providers. Following is a brief list:
- Offices of Physicians (different specialty)
- Offices of Optometrists
- Offices of Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapists
- Dental Clinics
- Chiropractic Clinics
- General Medical and Surgical Hospitals
- Psychiatric and Substance Abuse Hospitals
- Elderly and Persons with Disabilities Service Providers
- Residential Mental Health and Substance Abuse Facilities
- Rehabilitation Home Providers
- Drug Trial Patient Feedback Providers
- Child and Youth Service Providers
- Home Health Care Service Providers
- Medical Students
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