3 Things to Make Your Patient Experience More Positive
One of the main reasons that we wanted to start BrinsonAnderson Consulting is that, together, we have over 40 years of unique experience that we wanted to share in our own way. An important part of this is our lengthy and varied work history. But we are also, first and foremost, patients ourselves. Every time that we have a doctor’s appointment, it is an opportunity to think about ways that we can help our clients to improve the patient experience. Since we’ve been planning to do an ongoing series on the “patient perspective”, we decided that the best way to start is with one of us. Cheyenne recently had one of those days scheduling multiple doctor’s appointments with some pretty frustrating results. Here is her patient perspective on three things to make your patient experience more positive.
Good Customer Service
I recently had one of those days where I was trying to schedule appointments with a number of different doctors. It was a real eye-opener into something that I already knew as a consultant which is the importance of good customer service. Let’s start with the call to the breast imaging scheduling department at a large health care system in Houston. This is a system that generates over $500 million a year in revenue. And yet, when I called to schedule my mammogram (always a stressful experience for any woman), the scheduler asked if I preferred 2D or 3D imaging, and then had NO idea whether or not 3D was covered by my insurance. Seriously? And this was after being on hold for 10 minutes, getting hung up on, and then waiting on hold for another 10 minutes.
Furthermore, the system only offers phone reminders — not text or email in an era where the latter two are the most common forms of communication. Bottom line, this system is living in the dark ages where the burden of responsibility is placed solely on the patient. This is bad business. Good customer service is about making your patients’ lives easier. I got so annoyed that I called a privately held breast center, and spoke with a cheerful, knowledgeable staff member who helped me to quickly and easily book an appointment. And no, they don’t have online scheduling, but I had to smile when they made a point of telling me that they are in the process of rolling out a system.
Patient Portal
The next cancelation was with an office with multiple strikes against them:
Poor billing practices
Antiquated processes for completing annual demographic sheet
Less than cheerful front desk staff
No patient portal
However, I have always liked the doctor so I put up with the above. But then, I had to cancel an appointment, and you would have thought that I was asking for the moon. Not only could the scheduling department NOT cancel the appointment, but no one in the office was answering the phone before 4:30pm. Again, cruddy customer service.
We all live busy lives. Whatever you can do to simplify the scheduling process for your patients, the more likely you are to keep them. This is one of the many reasons why a patient portal is critical. With one, I could have taken care of my business with a few clicks, and gotten on with my busy day. Instead, that doctor lost a patient.
Text & Email Appointment Reminders
While this is really an addendum to the above, I feel so strongly about the importance of text and email reminders that I really want to drive it home. I spend my life on the phone helping my clients. The last thing that I want or need to do is answer a phone call, and have a conversation about my upcoming appointment or listen to your three minute recording before having the option to confirm. It’s a waste of time. With a text or email reminder, I can quickly check that the appointment is in my calendar, and then hit the “confirm” button. I know that I am coming. You know that I am coming. And the whole exchange takes seconds instead of minutes.
Last, but not least, if you want to make your patients really happy, make it possible to schedule their appointments online. It is truly the cherry on top. And if any of the above doctors had that option, they might still have me as a patient. Well, until I encountered that cranky front desk staff…
To find out more about how BrinsonAnderson Consulting can help you improve your patient experience, for a predictable monthly fee, contact us here.
