The customer is always the cynosure in any business because its survival and reputation largely depend on the experience and the satisfaction got from the services rendered. To gauge this, feedback constitutes a critical component for successfully running any form of business today. If one is not aware of the customer’s needs and wants, virtually every business decision made could result in mere speculation!
In the context of medical practices, patients are the most important customers, and gathering their feedback is crucial for improving their healthcare experience. Feedback is also the best way to convince healthcare professionals of the need to continuously drive change and measure its impact constantly.
Increasing number of patients today read online information and reviews before even seeking a healthcare service. So patients wish to avail treatment routes with positive reviews so that they are assured of best care outcomes. Therefore patient satisfaction in healthcare is a critical parameter for assessing the quality of healthcare services rendered. This is also the basis for further improvement.
Undoubtedly seeking reviews is the preliminary step to this process. However it is important for healthcare operations management to have a robust feedback system in place to capture the patient experience in hospitals through appropriate feedback mechanisms. Various mechanisms for collecting patient feedback include personal interviews, online surveys, phone inquiries, printed questionnaires and focus group meetings. This feedback must be further interpreted and deployed to a meaningful purpose.
In the context of medical practices, patients are the most important customers, and gathering their feedback is crucial for improving their healthcare experience. Feedback is also the best way to convince healthcare professionals of the need to continuously drive change and measure its impact constantly.
Increasing number of patients today read online information and reviews before even seeking a healthcare service. So patients wish to avail treatment routes with positive reviews so that they are assured of best care outcomes. Therefore patient satisfaction in healthcare is a critical parameter for assessing the quality of healthcare services rendered. This is also the basis for further improvement.
Undoubtedly seeking reviews is the preliminary step to this process. However it is important for healthcare operations management to have a robust feedback system in place to capture the patient experience in hospitals through appropriate feedback mechanisms. Various mechanisms for collecting patient feedback include personal interviews, online surveys, phone inquiries, printed questionnaires and focus group meetings. This feedback must be further interpreted and deployed to a meaningful purpose.
Five Important Benefits of Patient Feedback Mechanism in Hospitals
- To gain better insights on healthcare practices: By understanding the interpretations of patient reviews and feedback, healthcare providers can gain better inputs for enhancing care practices. Feedback enables patient involvement in decision and gives deeper insights for
- Focusing on improvement by overcoming existing barriers
- Enabling smoother care transition
- Providing personalised and value-based care
- Creating a platform of change for future generations
- Predicting upcoming trends and demands in healthcare
- To manage the hospital’s reputation and brand Image: It is important to retain the competitive edge in the healthcare market for sustaining the hospital business and maintaining its bottom line. Online reputation is crucial as patients leave reviews and ratings using the internet. Patients also make referrals on social media about their experience of care episodes. Effectively monitoring reviews and resolving issues by follow-ups can boost the patient confidence and delight. This helps hospitals in retaining their existing patient clientele and also in expanding their customer base by getting new patients.
- To improve care standards: It is important to understand the patient experience by taking inputs from the patients themselves. The feedback sought should involve a holistic approach of assessing the care quality received by the patients with the intended levels perceived by the hospital. So all aspects such as patient appointment scheduling, waiting time, physician’s professionalism, staff mannerisms and communication skills should be considered.
- To increase patient engagement level: The hospital’s personalised care approach with openness to feedback shows that patients are vital entities in its business. It also displays that patient needs are of utmost priority to the hospital. So the hospital strives to improve its care practices to improve healthcare outcome and retain its patients by lowering in-house complications and re-admission rates.
- To measure the hospital’s performance: Feedback enables hospitals to quantify their performance with respect to their counterparts to maintain healthy competition and set benchmarking standards.
Summary
Patient Feedback Mechanisms can be constructively used to enhance the care quality, identify existing gaps and make remedies and increase patient engagement with value-based personalized care offerings. By doing this, Hospital Reputation Management improves the hospital’s public image and branding which ultimately drives revenue and scales up patient care to greater heights!
0 comments:
Post a Comment