Understanding Patient Satisfaction – A key component to your Practice’s Success

According to the Journal of Medical Practice Management:  of those patients that rated their healthcare providers with two or fewer stars, only 1 in 25 claimed their physical examination, diagnosis, treatment, surgery or health outcome as the reason for their dissatisfaction. 
Patient's negative perceptions sited poor communications, disorganization, excessive delays, indifferent staff and communication frustrations.

In an environment where rising costs and increased competition for patients is prevalent, this fact is important because:

1. Sustaining or growing your practice depends on attracting new patients in addition to retaining your current patient-base.
2. Times have changed and consumers now consider multiple sources when selecting their healthcare provider.  Physician and practice “rate and review” websites strongly influence a patient’s choice of providers.  These sites rank several aspects of your practice, post and quote your patient’s satisfaction reviews.

 
Due to these shifting dynamics, surveying and montoring your patient’s satisfaction and perspectives is becoming a necessity for successful healthcare providers.  This enables you to learn more about what’s important to your patients and the best way to communicate and engage them. You only have a short time with each patient; the focus is on their health.  If they had a bad experience trying to get hold of you or other non-health related problems, you most likely won't hear about it.  But a dissatisfied patient may tell others, post a review or leave your  practice.  Give them a chance to give their feedback! The information gleaned from a well designed and implemented survey process can be invaluable to your practice’s future success. 

The good news is that conducting a custom patient satisfaction survey can be done with minimal time demands on you and your staff.  Then, once you become aware and understand your patients perceptions of your practice, you can put actions and processes into place that leverage their positive impressions and diminish the negative ones.
 
 
For more information concerning successful methods for obtaining patient feedback and implementing enhancement processes, please contact us at Broad Reach Marketing Services.