Optimizing the Patient for Surgery: The Pre-op Psychological Survey
A read-worthy article, recently published in OR Management News.
It is obvious that optimizing the patient prior to surgery is essential for maximizing desirable outcomes. While these efforts typically focus on managing comorbidities and assessing physiologic parameters, “comprehensive” optimization is achieved by including attention to the psychological status of the surgical patient.
With evolving specialization in surgery and increasing sophistication of procedures, psychological evaluations have become integral in the evaluation of patients for certain operations, such as bariatric, transplant and pain-related orthopedic surgeries.
The benefits of psychological “preparation” of surgical patients has been proposed as an important consideration.
Less developed, in contrast to specialized psychological evaluations, is a simple and broad approach to assessing every patient’s psychological state in a manner appropriate for use by the surgeon involved in the case. Psychological preparation of the patient requires a first step of evaluation through a preoperative psychological survey (POPS).
Read the full article at: Optimizing the Patient for Surgery: The Pre-op Psychological Survey – OR Management News
What Patients Want in 2021
This recent US study reveals the latest patient preferences and habits related to choosing a provider, receiving care, and communicating with a practice.
Key findings from the survey report include:
- Most patients look online to find healthcare providers. Three of four people have searched online to find out about a doctor, a dentist, or medical care. Sixty-one percent do so either sometimes or often.
- Reviews are the most influential online resource for patients. When choosing a healthcare provider, 74 percent of patients find positive online reviews very or extremely important. Sixty-nine percent say they will not consider a healthcare provider with an average star rating lower than 4.0 out of 5.
- More than half of patients prefer a digital connection for five key interactions with practices. At least 51 percent of patients favor digital interactions when scheduling an appointment, filling out forms, asking a provider a question, paying a bill, and accessing health records.
- Patients prefer text messaging for appointment communications. Two-thirds of patients prefer text messages when receiving medical appointment reminders. Also, 59 percent would like text message reminders to book their next appointment.
- There has been a notable level of patient attrition at practices. More than one-third of patients say they have left a healthcare provider in the past two years. Eight of 10 say they did so because of a poor in-person experience, and/or lack of access and communication with their provider.
Read the complete study report: 2021 Patient Perspective Survey Report | PatientPop
EXCLUSIVE OFFER FOR ROAR 2.0 ATTENDEES
We’re looking forward to ROAR 2.0 Sydney, where we’ll be presenting the findings from a research study of Australian consumer experiences and attitudes regarding hair loss and available treatments.
https://www.facebook.com/VenusConceptAU/
To coincide with the event, we have a special offer, exclusively for ROAR 2.0 attendees:
Free establishment/set up of any new Patient Experience Feedback program for your clinic. This covers:
- Survey questionnaire design.
- Graphic design / logo and image insertion.
- Upload to our secure online host server.
(A total saving of $660)
If you’ve been thinking about using client feedback to optimise your clinic’s patient experience, this would be a great opportunity to kick it off.
The offer is limited to attendees of the ROAR 2.0 events in Melbourne, Sydney and Gold Coast and expires on 30th August, 2021.
Please quote promo code: ROAR 2.0
Measuring Workplace Job Satisfaction and Wellbeing
Your employees are your businesses most important asset. Happy staff makes for happy customers.
With all the additional stresses they face adapting to new requirements and work practices in the COVID pandemic environment, there could not be a more crucial time to check in on how they’re coping.
The health of workers is not just about physical health, but psychological health too.
When managing mental health in the workplace, it is important to consider workplace hazards such as workplace bullying, work-related stress, work-related violence and work-related fatigue.
Workplaces that take an active leadership role in managing mental health hazards are likely to see overall improvements to staff health and wellbeing, as well as greater business productivity and safety culture.
Knowing how to how to identify mental health hazards and the actions that can be taken to manage the risks, not only contributes to the success of business, but helps fulfil legal duties.
https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/news/2016/mental-health-in-the-workplace
SafeWork Australia is very clear about the legal obligations of employers in this regard. Their guidelines state:
“Under the model Workplace Health and Safety Act, Persons Conducting Business or Undertakings have a duty to protect workers from psychological risks as well as physical risks. The best way to do this is by designing work, systems and workplaces to eliminate or minimise risks to psychological health; monitoring the health of workers and workplace conditions; and consulting with workers.”
Insight has developed an Employee Wellbeing and Job Satisfaction Survey based on core principles recommended by Safework Aust.
- Our template questionnaire comprises 40 touchpoints across the four key areas above.
- We customise the questionnaire to the specific requirements of each organisation and host it online on a secure server.
- Upon completion, we provide a comprehensive report comprising analysis of the quantitative data, consolidated table of narrative comments and summary of findings.
Contact us for more information.
Email: info@insightpss.com.au
Ph: +61.414.365865
Is patient loyalty enough?
An excellent article, recently published in Aesthetic Medical Practitioner Magazine.
“Today’s level of professional competition has never been seen before in the aesthetic market. Consumers are more discerning than ever before, and relying on patient loyalty is no longer enough to keep your practice successful. By taking time to understand consumer motivations, having the right staff on board, demanding professional excellence and investing in ongoing education, you can create a patient-centric practice that will both attract and retain patients.”
The solution to such a challenging outlook? Create a patient-centric practice and continually ask yourself the question: “What can I do for the patient?”
We couldn’t agree more.
Read the entire article at:
https://aestheticmedicalpractitioner.com.au/features/cosmetic-practice/is-patient-loyalty-enough/
IPSS Offering Free Business Assistance During COVID-19 Crisis
Announcement – April 6th, 2020
Due to the extraordinary economic circumstances arising from the COVID-19 crisis, Insight will be offering advisory services on a complimentary basis. This offer is available to:
- Medical Clinics.
- Professional Associations & Organisations.
- Medical Device and Supply Providers.
We will be working with our current clients, as well as any other Australian clinics and organisations who have been affected by social distancing and shut down measures.
Services that will be offered without fee include:
- Customer/Patient Experience Programs.
- Association Membership Feedback.
- Consumer & Market Research Projects.
Many market research providers are reporting higher than usual response rates to their consumer and B2B surveys, as more people are working from home and are less time-constrained.
We recognise that many businesses would currently be experiencing difficulties with financial and manpower resources. Our aim is to assist organisations who may require such services now and with planning and preparing their eventual return to normal trading conditions.
This complimentary business assistance program is available now, will continue for a minimum period of three months and may be extended further, should circumstances require.
For further information, contact:
Mr Kerry Bielik
Ph: 0414.365865
Email: info@insightpss.com.au
Use Patient Preference to Improve Patient Care Through Technology
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: It is absolutely imperative for medical practices who depend on Medicare reimbursements to strive to improve patient experiences through whatever means necessary if they hope to succeed in the world of value-based care.
Software Advice, a company that helps businesses navigate the software buying journey, released findings from its latest survey on improving patient care through technology. The study uncovered trends related to patients’ opinions, preferences, and expectations around three major, emerging healthcare technologies: telemedicine, artificial intelligence (AI), and electronic health record systems.
The study found that the use of AI-based technology within a medical practice is rapidly becoming an important selection criterion for patients, as 64 percent of patients stated they are more likely to choose a provider that uses AI-powered tools over one that does not.
Telemedicine services and insurance benefits top of mind for patients
Telemedicine is in high demand for enhancing the patient experience, reducing the need to travel and minimizing risk of exposure in hospitals and clinics. The survey revealed that 84 percent of patients are more likely to choose a provider who offers telemedicine over one who doesn’t.
AI is revolutionizing patient-centered care
The use of AI-based technologies in healthcare is becoming more prevalent, as nearly a third of all respondents (31 percent) stated they have interacted with AI-powered chatbots on provider’s websites to get questions answered or virtual nurses that take patient histories ahead of exams.
https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/improve-patient-care-through-technology/
SOCIAL MEDIA REVIEW OF MEDICAL PRACTICE: DEFAMATION SUIT
![medico-legal[1]](https://www.insightpss.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/medico-legal1.jpg)
The Australian legal system is slowly catching up with issues caused by reviews of personal experiences with businesses on social media sites.
One of the myriad of challenges created by this rapidly growing trend is the ability for users to make statements either anonymously or under a pseudonym. In some cases the claims may be demonstrably false or misleading or downright defamatory. Business proprietors have faced great difficulties in getting assistance from the review sites to investigate the source of the reviews. Even when evidence has been provided that a claim is fallacious, getting it removed can be a long and arduous process. In some instances business owners have incurred substantial legal costs and loss of income, not to mention emotional stress.
Things appear to be changing, as indicated by the case of a Melbourne dentist who has been given permission by the Federal Court to serve Google to attempt to find out the personal details of an anonymous account that left a bad review about his practice.
As reported in The Guardian:
Federal court justice Bernard Murphy gave leave to seek from Google a document that would contain the account’s subscriber information, name of users, the IP addresses that logged into the account, phone numbers, other metadata and other Google accounts that might have used the same IP address at a similar time as the review was left.
It is the latest in an increasing number of defamation cases brought against Google and other online reviewer sites, which have been reluctant to remove bad reviews.
Google has argued that defamation threats can be used to suppress information that might help customers steer clear of bad businesses, and that it should only remove reviews with a court order.
It followed a judgment in the South Australian Supreme Court last week awarding $750,000 in damages to Adelaide barrister Gordon Cheng for an October 2018 review left in English and Chinese on Google, claiming Cheng gave “false and misleading advices”.
Business of Beauty Program at #Cosmedicon2020
Really looking forward to joining a group of highly regarded presenters at the Cosmedicon “Business of Beauty” seminar: Sunday 8th March 2020 at Hotel Intercontinental Double Bay, Sydney
Lots of expert advice on medical practice management issues, such as:
- Business & Financial Planning
- Social Media Marketing
- Human Resource Management
http://www.cosmedicon.com.au/
I will be facilitating a workshop on “Solutions to Common Patient Experience Issues”.
Here’s a teaser.
