Patient Experience: The Ultimate Guide!

Introduction

Patient experience is being globally recognized now and has slowly carved a dimension of its own. While there are many important aspects of a healthcare system, patient experience is something that you just cannot afford to overlook, and this is especially because of the increasing competition in the healthcare industry. So what is patient experience exactly, why does it matter, and how can you improve it? Keep on reading to find out this and much more. 

What is Patient Experience? 

Patient experience can be defined as the sum of every little interaction that a patient has with a healthcare provider and their staff. This includes the entire patient journey, right from their initial contact with the healthcare provider to post-treatment, follow-ups, and more. The entire patient experience includes interaction with the doctor, nurses, and other staff members, quality of treatment, communication, transparency, billing, and more. Patient experience is an extremely important part of the healthcare industry as it can make or break your reputation and your revenue.

What is a Good Patient Experience? 

A good patient experience is making sure that every interaction that a patient has with you is cordial, smooth, and positive. Imagine being greeted by someone you meet for the first time in a stiff manner; how will it make you feel?

Now imagine being created in a cordial, welcoming manner. We bet that will create a positive first impression. Well, a good patient experience involves making sure that your patients have a very good experience with you, your staff, and your service right from when they make their initial contact to follow-ups and aftercare. 

Why is Good Patient Experience Important?

A positive patient experience is not only important to outshine your competitors but also to facilitate the rate of patient interaction, to standardize the level of help and care that a patient should receive, to improve care quality, and more.

Here are some stats that will shed light on just how important a good patient experience is: 

• Hospitals that offer a good patient experience have 50% higher profit margins compared to those that don’t.
• Patients are five times more likely to choose a healthcare provider that offers them a good patient experience. 
• According to a report by Accenture, 51% of patients would gladly switch to a healthcare provider if it meant for them to receive better customer service. 

Keep on reading as we reveal to you a number of benefits that you can have by focusing on positive patient experience. 

Top 8 Benefits of Providing Positive Patient Care Experience

Patient experience should be one of the primary goals of healthcare providers and hospitals, as it can create efficiencies, profoundly impact healthcare outcomes, ease the workload, and more. Here are some of the key benefits of providing a positive patient care experience: 

1. Patient experience ensures patient safety 

A healthcare provider or a hospital that prioritizes patient experience would also put in resources that could help healthcare staff put more emphasis on safety protocols. This means ensuring that patient records are maintained properly, procedures are done correctly, etc. This reduces the room for error in the long run and improves patient safety. 

2. Patient experience generates better health outcomes  

Although healthcare is about helping people get better, there are more nuances to it. This includes the entire patient interaction, right from scheduling the appointment to the way the doctor communicates with the patient. Studies have shown that when a patient feels respected, understood, and supported, they are more likely to cooperate and adhere to the procedure. With more patient engagement, the patient experience generates better health outcomes. 

3. Patient experience leads to patient satisfaction 

A positive patient experience is directly linked to better patient satisfaction. Suffice it to say, your patients want to be understood and taken seriously, and when you focus on patient experience and make your patient feel at ease, it increases patient satisfaction. Furthermore, patient satisfaction enhances patient loyalty and improves their chances of recommending you to others. 

4. Patient experience leads to an improved reputation 

To add to the above point, what do you think a satisfied patient would do? He or she would most likely leave a positive review for your business; if they forget, you could even ask them to leave a review by using a patient interaction tool like Emitrr. Positive patient reviews will not only improve your online reputation but will also increase the chance of a partnership or receiving funding in case you decide to expand your healthcare business. 

5. Patient experience equals more revenue 

When patient experience is prioritized, everything else follows. Efficiencies in the healthcare process, such as minimal wait times, good care, and streamlined operations, can make patients very happy. Eventually, a better patient experience can increase the retention rate, improve the standing with insurance providers, and better utilize hospital services, all of which help generate more revenue at the end of the day. 

6. Less burnout, efficient, and happier staff 

A good patient experience also extends to the hospital staff. When the patients are satisfied and happy, they are more likely to comply, which makes it easier for the staff to work with the patients. This leads to a stress-free, happy environment with less burnout, ultimately improving staff retention rates and saving money on new hires. 

7. Patient experience improves patient morale 

Patients diagnosed with severe illnesses that require long-term treatment require good patient care and experience the most. Serious illness can affect the mental health of patients a lot, and as such, a good patient experience can boost their morale and make them finish their treatment with courage. This not only helps the patient, but as a healthcare provider, it helps you serve your purpose too. 

8. Fewer lawsuits 

When it comes to healthcare, there can’t be any room for error. Any kind of carelessness or negligence in the healthcare industry can lead to severe consequences, and lawsuits are one of them. To ensure your reputation doesn’t get tainted by lawsuits, you must focus on offering a positive patient experience at all costs. 

Top 15 Strategies to Improve Patient Experience

Now that you have a clear idea of the numerous benefits of patient experience, let us look at some top strategies with which you can improve patient experience that ultimately lead to improved patient satisfaction: 

1. Set a good first-patient impression 

The first interaction that a potential patient will have with your healthcare business is probably by contacting you for an appointment. Imagine if this patient keeps finding the phone line busy, or if you miss their calls and never reach out again. Well, this could lead to a poor impression and turn them away from an alternate provider instead. To ensure such issues do not arise, you can use a calling or SMS service for patient interaction, like Emitrr. 

2. Offer timing flexibility 

When patients have problems scheduling and matching their availability with your work timing, try to keep an accommodating attitude. Although it might not always be possible for you to cater to customers beyond your availability, you can try to be available two times a day, in the morning and evening, so that patients can find a window for an appointment somewhere. 

3. Reduce patient wait time 

If you make your patient wait for too long, there is a high chance that they might go to someone else next time. To ensure a smooth patient experience, have a procedure and system in place. Avoid overbookings, and if someone’s appointment is running late, then let them know and send them updates. This will show your patients that you value their time and will improve the patient experience. 

4. Create a comfortable patient waiting area 

Even if your patients have to wait a bit, you should ensure that the waiting area is free of noise. You must also offer them comfortable sitting chairs and keep some magazines handy so that they can distract themselves from the anxiety that they may be feeling.

5. Reduce patient related paperwork

Reduce the need for your patients to submit documents they have shared with you online already. No one likes doing the same thing over and over. Have your online appointment process in place for a smooth patient experience.

6. Practice pre-visit planning

Spend some time familiarizing yourself with the upcoming patient’s case. When visits are not organized and your staff is not prepared, it can lead to a waste of time and a chaotic experience for your patient. Making an effort to understand the case prior to the patient’s visit shows that you have put in effort and leads to a smooth experience for patients.

7. Ask an open-ended question

If a patient visits you again, then start the conversation with an open-ended question like, How have you been since your last visit? This will make the patient feel more comfortable. And if your patient presents multiple issues and there is a time crunch, then you can address the most important ones first and keep others to address in the next visit. 

8. Involve your patients in their care 

Patients usually have a lot of anxiety and concern for their problems. To ease their stress, involve them in their own care. For this, tell them what procedure you are going to follow and why. Tell them what they can expect at the next visit, and so on. This will make them feel more comfortable, improving the patient experience. 

9. Deal with differences patiently 

Patients can often be quite adamant and may present views that differ from your medical expertise. In such situations, try to listen to the patient carefully and show them understanding. Try to find common ground to build future visits instead of disregarding them and letting them go to someone else. 

10. Avoid using medical jargon 

As a healthcare professional, medical verbiage might be your second language, but that does not mean all your patients will understand the jargon that you are using. Use simple terms instead, and encourage your patients to ask if they don’t understand something. For example, instead of using “tachycardia,” you may want to use “fast heart rate.”

11. Practice efficient coordination

Efficient coordination is essential for a smooth patient experience. This includes having a quick turnaround time for queries via messages or calls, reports, refill requests, etc. Since hospitals are mostly understaffed with work overload, it can get very difficult to focus on this aspect of patient care. But you can automate all this by utilizing an efficient SMS texting platform for healthcare providers like Emitrr. 

12. Reach out to patients yourself in case of concerning reports 

It might be acceptable to send simple test results or happy news via SMS or email, but if the news is bad, the doctor must make an effort to convey the news on call or in person, and that too themselves. This will reduce any chance of error in communicating crucial information and will also show your patients that you care for their well-being. 

13. Use advanced technology 

Advancements in technology are also improving the patient experience. Having a PMS system can allow your staff to coordinate properly, and having SMS software can allow you to automate appointments and other communications. Make good use of such options to enhance the healthcare patient experience. 

14. Delegate work 

You cannot single-handedly work to improve the patient experience. You will need a team and coordination from them. Your entire medical team, from the receptionist to the nurses, plays an important role in creating a good impression. So create a standardized procedure and ensure your staff follows your set values. 

15. Maintain Good Hygiene

A healthcare facility is always expected to maintain hygiene for obvious reasons. So make sure you have a clean lobby, washrooms, reception, etc., so that your patients feel comfortable and confident about choosing you as a healthcare service provider over others.  

How Emitrr Can Help You in Creating a Good Patient Experience?

In the above section, we shared some no-cost strategies that you can use to improve patient experience. However, when it comes to booking automation, sharing crucial information with the patient, etc. you should consider investing in a patient texting software like Emitrr. Here are practical reasons on how Emitrr can help you in taking patient care experience to the next level. 

1. Save 100s of hours for office staff with automation

Can you imagine sending updates to your patients for appointments, reminders, feedback, etc. to every new and old patient individually? This is not only impractical but can cost you a lot of money in wasted hours. Thankfully, Emitrr offers healthcare automation capability using which you can:

• Automate repetitive tasks such as no-show, reminders, reactivation, follow-up, etc.
• Streamline workflows and keep a record of conversations and patient records.

2. Reduce patient response time with 1 to 1 or broadcast messaging

Have an announcement to make? Or need to conversate with your patient one-on-one securely? Emitrr offers both options via broadcast messaging and one-to-one SMS capability respectively reducing patient response time. 

3. Send HIPAA-compliant texts to patients

Healthcare practitioners need to comply with HIPAA to communicate with their patients. There is not many HIPAA-compliant texting software in the market, but with Emitrr you can easily send HIPAA-compliant texts to your patients, staff, and even pharmacies via your practice number. 

4.  Reduce patient follow-ups with calling feature 

Emitrr also offers an efficient calling feature using which you can reach out patients via call and reduce patient follow-ups for say insurance, lab reports, PHI, and more.

5. Share confidential information securely 

With end-to-end encryption, you can confidently text or send confidential information to your patients in the form of images, videos, or links using Emitrr. This could include sharing an x-ray report, lab reports, insurance, etc. 

6. Integrate with 500+ EMRs

Emitrr integrates with over 500 EMRs such as Dentrix, athenahealth, drchrono, eClinicaWorks, etc. This feature helps in:

• Updating patient confirmations and notes automatically.
• Sending and receiving patient data between your existing EMR and Emitrr.
• Accessing patient data in Emitrr itself without needing you to refer to your EMR for every patient conversation.

7. Schedule patient appointments 

SMS is the easiest and most efficient way to schedule patient appointments. For example, you may not be available to take calls on some days, or a patient might call after hours, during a holiday, and so on. In such a situation, do you want to miss out on leads? Certainly not! You can use Emitrr, set up your work timings or other events and set up automated SMS that would go out to the potential patient asking them for their concern and will make appointment automatically upon getting a positive response. 

8. Send appointment confirmation & follow up texts

Did you know 80% of no-shows happen because the patient forgets their appointment date? Using Emitrr however, you can totally avoid this issue and send appointment confirmation and reminder text. And if your patient still does not show up you can even send them follow-up texts giving them the option to cancel or reschedule appointments. 

9. Send group or mass texts to patients 

Using Emitrr you can send out messages to multiple people at once and receive their replies separately. Or you can even create a group. For example, you may want to create a group with the patient and their family members to share their reports and keep the family in the loop.

10. Schedule messages  

When it comes to reactivating or retaining patients, you need to be very careful with your approach. Calling multiple times may irritate the person, but SMS can still be a safe bet.  Thankfully, Emitrr allows you to schedule messages or run campaigns for a set date and time. So you can use this feature to:

• Send follow-up texts
• Routine check-up reminders
• Seasonal greetings
• Reactivation or recall texts
• Marketing messages for
  • Exclusive deals
  • Limited time offers 
  • Discount codes 
  • Event notifications
  • Promoting new products

You can utilize this all in one patient communication software to take advantage of all the above-mentioned benefits and more to create a smooth patient experience. To get a quote, you can get in touch with Emitrr here. 

How To Measure Patient Experience?

If you are somewhat new to the concept of patient experience and want to find out how to exactly measure it then here are some key metrics to measure patient experience:

1. Emitrr’s patient satisfaction survey

The most popular way to find out if your patient had a good experience with you and your service is to send them a patient satisfaction survey. From their initial booking to staff interaction to quality of service, etc. you can find out how good the patient experience was for them by sending out different satisfaction surveys at frequent intervals. 

You can use an all-in-one patient communication software like Emitrr to send or schedule these surveys easily. Here’s an example of a patient satisfaction survey:

“How would you like to rate the experience you had with us?”

• Very satisfied
• Satisfied
• Neutral
• Dissatisfied
• Very dissatisfied

2. PROMs & PREMs surveys 

Using the Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMS) questionnaire is another great way to measure patient experience. This questionnaire is specially focused on the outcome of treatment the patient has received especially for varicose vein, knee, hip, and hernia treatment. And for those diagnosed with bowel, breast, or prostate cancer.

PREM refers to patient-reported experience measures that can help you identify and measure a patient’s perspective of your service. This type of questionnaire contains questions that ask patients about the process that took place and the way it made them feel. 

3. Patient net promoter score® (NPS)

NPS is another popular method to measure how patients view your organization and the services they have received. This metric can allow you to assess patient satisfaction and loyalty, and how likely they are to recommend you to their friends and family.

4. Interviews and focus groups  

Interviews and focus groups are methods that require you to interact with patients in person to find out what they think about your service. This type of survey gives the best result however, it may be more time-consuming and harder to arrange. 

5. Patient reviews and complaints 

Another simple way to find out what kind of experience your patients had is to send them review requests and see what they are saying. You can send out review requests very easily using Emitrr and ask them to leave reviews if you have an online presence on Google My Business, Facebook, Yelp, etc.  

What is the Importance of Patient Experience Measurement?

You might be wondering if patient experience measurement is even important? Let us look at some key points to understand how much impact this can create:

1. Low operational cost 

As per a study, poor patient experience scores often lead to malpractice, which then leads to expensive lawsuits and other expenses. By focusing on patient experience you can reduce malpractices, which can save you a lot of added operational costs.

2. Better reputation 

A good patient experience will most likely encourage your patients to refer your service to others. Hence, good patient experience leads to good outcomes and in generating patient reviews, which directly help you create a better reputation. 

3. Better health outcomes

A patient who is happy with the healthcare experience is likely to continue receiving care and get better. So good patient experience leads to better health outcomes for patients. 

4. Better staff performance 

By measuring patient experience data you can analyse the performance of your staff and guide them to improving what’s not working out which can ultimately lead to better staff performance. 

What Is an Example of Good Patient Experience?

Suppose you are using a patient communication tool like Emitrr, and a patient gives you a call after hours. Clearly no one would be able to pick the call, but still, the person calling receives an automated message asking them for their concern. Based on the patient’s input the tool perhaps informs them about the operating hours or fixes an appointment. This simple process got you a patient and made it very easy for the patient to get their concern addressed in spite of you being closed. This is an example of a good patient experience.

FAQs on Patient Experience 

Conclusion

Today patients can find hundreds of healthcare providers within a quick Google search. They not only want healthcare providers to offer them convenient self-service options and features but literally expect nothing less. And so, as a healthcare provider, a good patient experience is important to make yourself stand out from your so many competitors.