What do Patients Care About? - The Importance of Patient Feedback
Valuing and Implementing Patient Feedback
There's no question that patient feedback is one of the most valuable and important tools to use when working in the healthcare industry. It's the only way to truly tell how successful a practice is in providing quality care that leaves patients happy and satisfied. It gives a healthcare provider insights into what is working within the practice, and what needs to be changed.
However helpful patient feedback can be, it won't do any good if it is not understood and taken carefully into consideration. Patient experience is built off of four pillars: empathy, staff, process, and outcome. Each patient experience will reflect on a portion of this foundation, and if a provider can recognize this they can build a better quality experience for all patients.
The Crucial Role Patient Feedback Plays in Healthcare
Patient feedback can be used in a variety of ways to enhance the value of a practice. It is crucial in helping providers reach their full potential and offer the best care possible. A few outcomes that come from utilizing patient feedback are:
Improved Patient Satisfaction
Feedback from patients provides insights into their experiences, allowing healthcare providers to identify areas for improvement and enhance patient satisfaction.
Enhanced Quality of Care
By gathering feedback, healthcare organizations can identify gaps in care delivery, address concerns promptly, and implement changes to ensure high-quality healthcare services.
Promotion of Patient-Centered Care
Patient feedback helps healthcare providers understand patient preferences, values, and priorities, enabling them to tailor care plans and services to meet individual patient needs.
Built Trust and Engagement
Actively seeking and responding to patient feedback demonstrates a commitment to patient-centered care, fostering trust and engagement between patients and healthcare providers.
Drives Continuous Improvement
Continuous feedback loops enable healthcare organizations to monitor performance over time, track progress on improvement initiatives, and adapt strategies based on evolving patient needs and expectations.
Empowers Patients
Providing opportunities for patients to share their experiences and perspectives empowers them as active participants in their own healthcare, contributing to a more collaborative and supportive care environment.
How to Understand and Implement Patient Feedback
The 4 Pillars
To begin to understand different patient feedback and what it can mean to you, you have to understand the 4 pillars of patient experience. Empathy, staff, process, and outcome are the driving factors in determining whether or not an experience was satisfactory or not. Below is a little more insight into what each pillar represents.
Empathy involves demonstrating understanding and care for all patients. When patients feel cared for and have a level of trust with a practice, it significantly enhances their overall satisfaction with the care they receive.
Staff interactions play a large role in shaping patient experience. Well trained staff who demonstrate clear communication and respectful treatment will help maintain a positive environment.
When patients encounter smooth and efficient processes, they experience less frustration and are more satisfied with the care they receive. From reducing wait times and ensuring to minimizing paperwork, well-designed processes will ensure a good patient experience.
When patients achieve their desired health goals and outcomes, they view their healthcare journey as successful and worthwhile.
Patient feedback, in one way or another, will direct back to these 4 pillars. It is key to recognize which factor your practice is either falling short in or exceeding in, so you can take the proper steps to improve or maintain patient satisfaction and the success of your practice.
Gather Feedback
Once an understanding for the 4 pillars has been gathered, you have to have resources in place to collect feedback. A few ways to do this is to ask in the office how a patient is feeling, monitor reviews online, send out surveys, and place QR codes in the office or send out automated messages directing patients to leave a review. To learn more about how to gather and encourage feedback from patients visit Layline’s website.
Best Practices for Healthcare Providers
Once a provider has collected patient feedback and has the ability to recognize what in particular is or isn't working within their practice, it is important to use that information to improve patient care. The best practices that any providers can implement to improve on their care include:
Send newsletters to patients
Reduce long wait times
Keep patients well informed and in the loop
Have friendly and well trained staff
Have easy to use systems - EX. easy scheduling
Provide ways to reach the practice
Put yourself in your patients shoes
Respond to negative reviews
Take time with each patient - don’t make patients feel like your rushed and ask questions
Be clear about next steps - provide them with the proper information to continue their health journey
Pop in on every patient
Follow the “mom rule: treat every patient as if she were your mother
Remember personal items of importance
Review charts ahead of time
Have good body language
Surveys and Real Life Examples
Surveys are one of the most efficient ways to collect real patient feedback and data. Patients like to share their experiences but not every patient feels comfortable leaving a non-anonymous review. Sending out surveys for patients to fill out, offers patients an anonymous, easy way to share their true thoughts and feelings. This way practices can collect the most honest and real opinions and experiences. These surveys will show practices things they need to improve on, but also things that they are doing really well that they should continue doing.
Negative Experience
To emphasize how important patient feedback is, and how valuable and useful surveys can be in collecting feedback, a real life testimonial from a patient's experience is below.
“There was no thorough explanation of aftercare for the service received. It was more about taking my money and moving me right along. I will complete the services with this facility but after that I don't think I will ever return.”
This real life testimonial gives really important insight into what the practice can do better, as the patient is unsatisfied with their care. Specifically, this testimonial shows how the practice can improve upon process, staff, and empathy, since they felt that there was no explanation of aftercare, as well as, feeling like just another number to the practice.
To respond to this negative experience and make sure this doesn't happen again, the practice should prioritize strategies that will focus on improving the pillars that were lacking throughout. Some practices that could have prevented this are:
Be clear about next steps - provide them with the proper information to continue their health journey
Take time with each patient - don’t make patients feel like your rushed and ask questions
Reduce long wait times
Keep patients well informed and in the loop
Have friendly and well trained staff
Positive Experience
Contrary to the example shown above, the patient feedback below shows how good staff, process, and empathy can work together to create a positive patient experience.
“The staff/personnel were very courteous and welcoming. The clinic/facility was neat and felt comfortable while waiting. My doctor was gentle on my eye and I appreciate the time she spent with me on follow up visits.”
From this patient feedback, the practice can see how happy the patient was with their care, as well as the experience. They can also see what exactly attributed to this experience being such a good one. This patient really appreciated the staff being courteous and welcoming, as well as the facility being clean and comfortable. Additionally, the patient was satisfied with the care they received and the attention to detail spent on follow up visits. The practice can take this information to know what exactly patients really care about, and what they should continue to do.
Patient Feedback in Healthcare
The examples above have shown just how valuable it is to receive patient feedback. Not only does it tell you what the areas you need to improve in, but it tells you the things that you are doing really well. With this information, practices can reach their full potential and ensure that every patient is leaving their care satisfied and happy. To learn more about the strategies you can implement to receive more patient feedback visit our website at Layline.live!