You are happy that you are providing the best healthcare services, but does your patients feel the same about you? How can you ensure that your patients are satisfied? One of the biggest challenges in the healthcare sector is to improve and sustain the quality of care and services. Improved quality care can lead to enhanced Patient Experience. This is the sole reason why measuring Patient Satisfaction has become the top priority for the majority of healthcare providers.

As per different studies, patient experience is directly linked with patient safety and clinical effectiveness.

How is Patient Satisfaction measured?

Patient satisfaction is measured with the help of an HCAHPS survey (also known as CAHPS (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) Hospital Survey, which refers to a set of surveys that collects patients' data to measure patients' experience about hospital care and services.

More than 4000 hospitals conduct HCAHPS surveys every year, and around 3 million patients complete the surveys.

It is the first standardized survey that measures 10 key aspects of healthcare quality, communication happened with doctors and nurses and other aspects as well. It was designed to capture comprehensive patient details required by the hospitals to connect Patient Satisfaction with business performance.

5 Reasons why Measuring Patient Satisfaction is Important

Patient Satisfaction is an important metric to measure overall healthcare quality. With the help of Patient Satisfaction Surveys, constant measuring of Patient Satisfaction and improving Patient Experience can be achieved. It is a valuable tool to capture Patient Feedback without much effort.

1. To provide top-tier Patient Care services

Measuring Patient Satisfaction tells you areas of improvement and focus to provide better patient care services.

Achieving high levels of satisfaction is directly dependent on the high-quality patient care services provided by the team of specialized doctors and hospital staff. The entire staff must treat patients with warmth from the receptionist who schedules your appointment, doctors providing the right treatment, to the nurse taking vital stats of the patients.

According to a survey conducted by Accenture, 65% of patients say transparency about the cost of healthcare services is very important to their overall satisfaction.

What can you do to improve Patient Care services?

• Follow the correct way to diagnose the illness timely

• Increase and improve access to physician

• Suggest the right treatment

• Offer cost-effective treatment plans

• Provide quality care post-discharge

2. To know the performance of the Hospital Staff

It’s important to keep a pulse on your hospital staff’s performance at frequent intervals. Happy staff will provide better patient care. If patients are not pleased with their visit, there’s a probability that patients will opt for services from another provider. Therefore, it’s imperative to listen to your patients, which will make them feel empowered.

A research study by Gallup and Loma Linda University Medical reveals that employee engagement and employee safety are both responsible for enhancing patient safety.

What can you do to improve your staff performance?

• Create a workable and friendly atmosphere for your staff

• Ensure hospital staff understand their responsibilities

• Conduct hospital employee satisfaction surveys

• Motivate non-performers to improve their performance

• Reward best-performers

3. To know miffed and angry Patients

Every hospital comes across a situation where they have to deal with angry patients. It’s a daunting task to deal with them and especially when they take out their frustrations on you. They can be upset because of numerous reasons like delay in appointments, long patient wait times, wrong diagnosis and treatment, lack of quality care, and a lot more.

Studies show that 43% of patients say wait time is the most frustrating part of visiting the doctor.

And, if you don’t address their issues, you might even receive legal threats from them. You can’t ignore such situations, so it’s better to learn how to deal with them.  As a care provider, you need to recognize the warning signs and take control of the situation before it gets worse. You need to create best practices and follow them to handle agitated patients.

What can you do to deal with angry patients?

• Take a deep breath and try to remain calm

• Collect all the details about the patient’s disease and treatment given to them

• Spend quality time with them to find out reasons behind their outburst

• Show empathy and try to resolve their issues

• Avoid to indulge in any arguments and defend yourself against threats

• Protect yourself legally by carefully documenting clinical and administrative complaints

4. To improve Patient Experience

Most doctors have a short span of time in which they need to complete numerous tasks from catching up with patients, understanding their concerns, and providing the relevant treatment. In such situations, it would be difficult for them to address all the issues of their patients.

Without getting answers for specific queries like did you provide the desired care? Did you give the right advice? It would be difficult for hospitals to improve the Patient Experience. One of the best ways to improve it is by engaging with your patients and addressing their issues promptly after every interaction.

According to NRC, 73% of patients want to be asked for feedback within a few minutes to a few hours after they receive care.

What can you do to improve Patient Experience?

• Implement a centralized hospital information system to streamline hospital processes – patient registration, appointment scheduling, generating bills, publishing lab test reports setting up reminders, etc.

• Focus on each patient and deliver personalized patient care

• Reach out to patients and engage with them on different channels

• Conduct Patient Surveys to collect valuable feedback

• Try to understand how patients perceive the quality of care given

• Discuss with stakeholders and employ quality measures

5. To improve Patient Retention

It’s more cost-effective to retain old patients than to get new patients. Returning patients will result in greater ROI and happy patients can be your best advocates. They will keep coming back to opt for your services and even recommend you to their friends and family. Apart from providing quality care, employ some of the best patient retention strategies to make your patients feel valued.

What can you do to improve Patient Retention?

• Create a comfortable and inviting atmosphere in the hospital

• Inform the patients in advance about the treatment procedure

• Surpass patient’s expectations and provide the best treatment

• Conduct follow up surveys after the visits

• Educate and inform your patients

Wrap Up

Understanding patient preferences and their health issues is the key to create a better Patient Experience. It’s invaluable for your facility to know how your patients perceive your healthcare services. Communication is one of the biggest challenges in the healthcare industry. To overcome this challenge and boost engagement, you can send surveys to your patients.

With Patient Satisfaction Surveys, you can easily create customized and engaging healthcare surveys to find out the pain-points of your patients, where you lack, whether there’s any room for improvement, and what measures you can implement to enhance your care and services. Additionally, it ensures that your patients understand that their opinion matters to you and can help you improve your online reputation.

Learn more about the Patient Satisfaction

• How can Healthcare Improve Patient Satisfaction?

• Difference between Patient Satisfaction and Patient Experience

• How to Measure Patient Satisfaction Using Patient Surveys?

• 6 Best Ways to Ensure Patient Satisfaction at your Hospitals & Clinics

• Growing Importance of Patient Surveys