Posts

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

Is patient loyalty enough?

Loyalty

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/

 

Use Patient Preference to Improve Patient Care Through Technology

Software advice

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.

Insert

 

https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/improve-patient-care-through-technology/

 

 

SOCIAL MEDIA REVIEW OF MEDICAL PRACTICE: DEFAMATION SUIT

medico-legal[1]

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”.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/14/court-says-melbourne-dentist-can-serve-google-for-user-details-over-bad-review

 

 

How Can Clinicians Teach, Learn Provider Empathy, Compassion?

o-DOCTORS-APPOINTMENT-facebook[1]

 

Grounding provider empathy training in genuine feedback will help drive compassionate care.

 

In healthcare, it might be time to reconsider how to think about empathy. As more industry experts underscore the importance of compassionate care, developing new ways to train, and therefore look at, provider empathy will be key.

 

Data shows that empathy and compassion are two of the leading factors patients consider when evaluating their doctors.

A 2018 survey from HealthTap showed that 85 percent of patients value compassion in healthcare when ranking their doctors. Just as many value quality care and provider expertise.

Providers who deliver compassionate, patient-centered care tend to see better relationships with their patients, better adherence to treatments, and better outcomes. And even when outcomes suffer due to medical error or factors outside the provider’s control, empathy can go a long way in improving a patient’s perception of care.

 

Read more of this  incisive article by Sara Heath at:

https://patientengagementhit.com/news/how-can-clinicians-teach-learn-provider-empathy-compassion

 

 

 

Do satisfied patients and engaged staff impact on healthcare business profits?

Medical profits

Well, according to an article recently published in Harvard Business Review, it would seem that they do… and very much to the positive.

 

https://hbr.org/2019/05/when-patient-experience-and-employee-engagement-both-improve-hospitals-ratings-and-profits-climb

 

When Patient Experience and Employee Engagement Both Improve, Hospitals’ Ratings and Profits Climb

Health care executives know that patient experience and workforce engagement are intertwined, but few providers integrate and analyze these data to really understand the connection. Management tends to take it on faith that improving patient experience and enhancing employee engagement are good ideas — but faith alone doesn’t always lead to appropriate prioritization if it isn’t accompanied by insight into how issues relate to bottom-line performance.

When organizations have invested in comprehensive data collection for a few years, they see a time-lapse view of their performance that demonstrates whether it is improving. Leading organizations are taking it a step further, leveraging the data to understand how improvement on patient experience and/or employee engagement correlates with broader organizational performance.

Our latest research shows that hospitals that improve over time in distinct HCAHPS survey measures of patient experience or employee engagement also see improvement in patients’ global ratings of their care.

Further, the data reveal that there can be a compounding effect when organizations improve in both experience and engagement measures.

What’s more, we found a pronounced association between improvement in overall hospital rating and financial performance: for every one-point increase in hospital rating we saw a 0.2% increase in net operating profit margin.

When we removed critical access hospitals from the data set, every one-point increase in hospital rating was associated with a 0.4% increase in profit margin. In this scenario, a five-point increase in hospital rating correlates with a two percent profit-margin increase.

 

Given the sweeping and unstoppable market forces exerting pressure on health systems and hospitals, evidence of the compounding effect of patient experience and employee engagement on business outcomes should command the attention of health care leaders. The follow-on imperative is to home in on the key structure and process elements that drive better performance in both domains.

 

 

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

 

Effective Leadership in a Medical Practice

A very incisive article on Medical Practice Leadership, discussing the various styles and challenges for business owners and directors.

Well worth taking a few minutes to read:

 

“Working with doctors who are becoming medical business owners, I find one of the greatest challenges they face is identifying where they fit within their own organisation. Going into private practice they find themselves suddenly thrust into a position of leadership as the director of the business. Yet at the same time they are working in the business, day-to-day, shoulder-to-shoulder with their clinical and administration team. Having an understanding of and applying effective leadership skills can be the key to a successful business.”

 

Full article by Hanya Oversby at:

https://hanyaoversby.com.au/thrust-into-leadership-the-private-practice-magazine/