Patient Satisfaction
Patient satisfaction, and more importantly patient loyalty, is a critical ingredient in the business of health care. As the healthcare consumer continues to evolve across the generations, satisfaction will play a greater and greater role in determining who gets the label of preferred provider.
An effective patient satisfaction system can support a provider in reaching for strategic success in the five critical outcomes important for today's market:
- 1) patient satisfaction that drives for patient loyalty;
- 2) patient retention;
- 3) patient profitability;
- 4) new patient acquisition; and
- 5) market domination.
- 2) patient retention;
If managed properly, it is linked to the many provider systems that share common quality-oriented goals that promote these outcomes. An effective patient satisfaction system avoids soft quality and helps in creating a common thread for quality across an organization - the creation of strong and healthy patient perceptions. It becomes one of the primary methods of measurement in an effective quality program as it has more potential power than any other measurement system to let us know how we are doing in the eyes of our more influential critic - the PATIENT.
An effective patient satisfaction program measures the perceptual impact of a number of activities that come together to create patient perceptions and determine the strength of the final patient experience. It has the potential to measure the entire range of patient perceptions, from pseudo-measures to the vigor of the patient/provider relationships.
Patient Satisfaction Blog
The debate over qualitative versus quantitative data is heating up in health care as providers look for ways to effectively measure and manage patient satisfaction in an increasingly competitive market place. The answer doesn’t live in choosing one or the other. It is found in learning how to marry the benefits of each in a [...]
Effective measurement of patient satisfaction is much more than just sending out surveys and aggregating results. When effectively woven into a quality program, it allows a provider a final opportunity to connect with the patient, determine what would foster patient loyalty in the future and catch those issues that have angered patients but slipped through [...]
Providers that manage patient satisfaction measurement as one more form of soft quality in today’s environment choose to increase their risk of ending up as a casualty along the highway to health care’s future. An activity falls into the category of “soft quality” when its design and implementation creates the perception of action without it [...]
The impact of a patient satisfaction measurement system is influenced by how important it is perceived to be by the patient.
An effective patient satisfaction system works to be responsive to the four major consumer groups.
An effective patient satisfaction system helps an organization to better understand those patient value propositions that are most important to the consumers of health care services.
An effective patient satisfaction system is proactively aligned with the changing needs and dynamics of the patient relationship.
Always build your surveys to support achieving the Ten Commandments of Patient Care.
Quality begins on the inside... and then works its way out. -- Bob Moawad
Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves. -- Dale Carnegie
Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable. -- Lord Chesterfield
Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results. -- Andrew Carnegie
Change does not change tradition. It strengthens it. Change is a challenge and an opportunity; not a threat. -- Prince Phillip of England
