Our article recently published in Aesthetic Medical Practitioner magazine.
Consumer Perspectives On Patient Experience in Medical Practices.
New Study Data.
AMP 2018 Perspectives on Patient Experience
Posts
2018 Patient Experience Consumer Study
![waiting_room_2[1]](https://www.insightpss.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/waiting_room_21.jpg)
(Just released by The Beryl Institute)
Healthcare professionals have taken major steps to understand, measure, and improve the Patient & Family Experience. But do consumers really care about this?
The Beryl Institute’s inaugural consumer study explores consumers’ viewpoint on healthcare and the patient experience and how this fits into their broader set of expectations around health and healthcare delivery. The first of its kind global research, the study engaged 2,000 respondents from five countries representing four continents sharing insights from consumers of care on the patient experience – its importance, critical factors and value.
According to the research:
- Consumers confirm patient experience extremely important to them overall
- Patient experience is personal and connected to how people view their health outcomes overall
- Consumers affirm human interactions most important to them in assessing patient experience, followed by processes and then place.
- Of greatest importance to consumers is how they are connected with as human beings with a focus on listening, communicating clearly and being treated with dignity and respect
- Consumers confirm they see experience as the integration of all they encounter in healthcare from quality and safety to service, cost and more
- People easily recall their healthcare experiences, especially those positive in nature, and the top thing they do, for both positive and negative encounters, is tell others.
- Patient Experience is significant to the healthcare decisions of consumers
- Recommendations and referrals far outweigh everything else in making health decisions and choices.
U.S. Trends in Cosmetic Procedures. Are there lessons here for Australian Clinics?
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) has just released data from their most recent study of cosmetic procedure trends, showing the comparative results from 2017 versus 2016.
The report shows overall growth of 2% in the total number of procedures undertaken (year-on-year). It also highlighted the rapid growth in the “minimally invasive procedure” category, which is up nearly 200% since Year 2000.
Top performers in the “Minimally Invasive” category were: Cellulite treatment, Platelet Rich Plasma and Fat Freezing.
Highest growth in the “Surgical” category were: Hair Transplantation and Breast Reduction. (Interestingly, the number of Buttock Implant procedures fell by 56%.)
The key charts within the report are a little dense and difficult to see in the online version, so we’ve taken the liberty to summarise the most significant results for both categories below:
Cosmedicon 2018 is just 2 weeks away.
This year’s Cosmedicon is being held at Sydney’s InterContinental Hotel Double Bay, from the 15th to 18th March.
The two-day scientific program will feature prominent international and local thought leaders delivering their insights and practice pearls on the most relevant and cutting edge techniques and products in minimally invasive cosmetic practice, including facial rejuvenation, body sculpting, skincare and laser.
The post-conference full-day program, the ‘Business of Beauty’, delves into the practicalities of running and managing a successful business and will feature business strategies, practice management pearls and new techniques at the intersection of beauty and cosmetic practice.
I’m very excited to be presenting a Patient Experience Case Study at Cosmedicon and honoured to be also chairing several of the sessions at this prestigious event.
One thing in particular to keep an eye out for will be the announcement of results from a new survey of “Australian Consumer Attitudes to Non & Minimally Invasive Cosmetic Procedures.” The data gleaned from this will be invaluable marketing intelligence for anyone involved in cosmetic medical industry.
Looking forward to seeing friends and colleagues at the conference.
Survey of Consumer Attitudes on Cosmetic Enhancement Procedures. (Closing shortly!)
On behalf of Cosmedicon, Insight is conducting research on Australian consumer trends and attitudes, regarding minimally invasive medical procedures and treatments.
The survey covers issues such as;
- The most popular types of procedures.
- Motivational factors.
- How consumers research treatments, and
- How they choose a suitable clinic or practitioner.
The results of the study will be published in conjunction with the Cosmedicon conference in March.
Please contribute your thoughts and opinions to this important study.
It takes only 2 minutes and your participation will be of enormous assistance and greatly appreciated.
Or copy and paste this link to your browser.
https://www.research.net/r/Cosmedicon2
Presentation at ASAPS Conference
At the recent 40th Annual ASAPS Conference (Australasian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons) in Melbourne, we had the opportunity to present two papers in the ‘Business Management’ program. The second featured case studies of 2 cosmetic medical practices which had implemented Patient Experience Feedback programs, and showed the success those clinics had achieved as a result.
A key message of the presentation came from a quote by renowned business performance guru – H. James Harrington:
Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement.
If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it.
If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it.
If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.
With this in mind, we demonstrated how both clinics had carefully analysed both the quantitative data and patient narrative comments to evolve their procedures and achieve substantial improvement in critical areas of their operations. Both saw significant uplift in Key Performance Indicators:
Neither practice achieved their success by simply looking at their PX program data. If only it were that easy.
It took the dedication to continually review feedback and engage with their teams to evolve operating procedures and standards. They kept asking the question ‘What can we do better’ until they got there. After 3 years, they’re still asking and still improving.
“Healthcare organizations will need to live up to a new service expectation if they want to continue to win the business of their service savvy customers” – PatientEngagementHIT.com
ASAPS Conference Presentation
Just a couple of weeks to go until the 40th Annual Conference of Australian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons.
We’re delivering a presentation featuring the results of Case Studies, demonstrating how Patient Experience Programs have delivered successful outcomes for 2 different clinics.
Date:Friday 20th October, 2017.
Session time: 3:30pm to 5:30pm
Here’s a preview of what we’ll be covering…
Negative Online Patient Reviews: How to minimise the impact on your practice reputation.
Our presentation at yesterday’s Cosmetex 2017 Practice Business Management session was a big hit.
The following slide in particular stirred up quite a buzz among the conference delegates.
We analysed over 6,000 responses to Patient Feedback surveys to identify the Top 10 issues that patients noted as unsatisfactory regarding their experience at cosmedical practices.
Question: Which would you consider to be the better outcome?
- Receiving a complaint directly from your patient, so it can be dealt with internally and discretely; or
- Having the patient air their grievances publically, by posting them in an online forum, for everyone to see.
Something to think about.
BIG NEWS…We’re presenting at ASAPS 2017.
Insight is delighted to have been invited to present at the upcoming conference of the Australasian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons.
We’ll be delivering a paper showcasing the findings from case studies of 2 different clinics that employ Patient Experience Programs.
If you’d like to learn how they achieved dramatic improvements in their customer experience and patient loyalty, you won’t want to miss this.
See you at: The 40th Annual ASAPS Conference
The Grand Hyatt – Melbourne
3.30pm, Friday 20th October
http://asapsevents.org.au/2017-40th-annual-asaps-conference
Online Forums – Is a negative review necessarily there for all eternity?
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Love ’em or hate ’em, those online review sites can have a big impact on the reputation and public perception of a practice. Any negative reviews could be influencing potential clients years after it was posted, potentially for as long as the forum exists.
Sites such as Google Review and Yelp offer consumers a genuine opportunity to post their personal experiences of service providers, so others can consider whether or not to use them. They are however, subject to little scrutiny by the site administrators.
So what should you do if someone posts a review that may be questionable in accuracy or intent?
“Suffer the slings and arrows or take arms against a sea of troubles”? (Apologies to Mr Shakespeare).
Sites have rules that govern how and what can be posted. These are sometimes referred to as “Terms of Use” or “Content Guidelines”. A review post which breaches those rules can be deleted, but it’s up to the business in question to request this.
You’ll need to know what the site rules are and show why the post contravenes them or evidence that the information is inaccurate or spurious. It can be difficult and time consuming but it can be done; as shown in this example:
We’re writing to let you know that we’ve evaluated _________________ review of _________Plastic Surgery that you recently reported. After assessing the review carefully against our Content Guidelines, we agree that this review should be removed.
We rely on community engagement to help keep Yelp useful. Thanks so much for taking the time to bring this matter to our attention!
– The Yelp Support Team
The reputation of your practice is a critical business asset.
Be proactive and don’t be afraid to defend it, if necessary.