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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

IPSS Offering Free Business Assistance During COVID-19 Crisis

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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

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.

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

 

 

SOCIAL MEDIA REVIEW OF MEDICAL PRACTICE: DEFAMATION SUIT

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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?

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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

 

 

 

When Good Customer Experience Surveys Turn Bad.

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Is there such a thing as a ‘bad’ Patient Experience Survey?

 

You betcha!

Over the years, I’ve seen the good, the bad and the simply appalling.

 

Not too long ago, I had a minor surgical eye procedure which entailed multiple preliminary visits for scans and consultation, followed by a rather scary operation and post-op consultation. During the final visit, I was asked to fill out a “Patient Satisfaction Survey” form. Being in the “biz” I figured I ought to walk the talk and contribute to the cause.

 

Still with a patch over one eye, I was handed a dog-eared 6th generation photocopy of a two page form with over 30 questions and responses, which I was expected to complete under the watchful eye of a member of the practice staff. Apart from; being almost illegible, the intimidating circumstances and the poorly worded questions, I duly completed the form and watched in amazement as the staff member placed it in an open file tray on her desk.

 

I was left with the overall impression that the practice was merely paying lip service to the idea of asking for patient feedback. If they actually took it seriously, they would surely not be taking such a cavalier approach.

 

So what makes for a bad survey?

  • Convoluted survey instructions.
  • Too many questions.
  • Irrelevant questions.
  • Poorly phrased questions and loaded response options.
  • Failure to ask the questions about what matters to the customer.
  • Lack of opportunity to provide qualitative commentary.
  • Over-emphasis on certain aspects of the patient journey, to the exclusions of others.
  • An overriding impression that it’s just an afterthought and not being taken seriously.

 

A 2016 US study of online reviews of medical practices found that 96% of complaints found fault with the customer service – not the quality of care.

That was certainly my own experience at that eye clinic, though I doubt the questionnaire I completed will have any impact whatsoever.

 

 

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.

 

 

Medical Services Consumers – What Matters Most to them?

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I had the opportunity to deliver a presentation at #Cosmedicon2019 in the “Business of Beauty” workshop.

 

The paper discusses what defines “The Patient Experience” and looks at data from a recent international survey by the Beryl Institute:

“Consumer Perspectives on Patient Experience”.

 

To get the ball rolling, I posed three questions to the audience:

  •  Has the business of Aesthetic Medicine become more competitive over the past 5 years?
  • Do you expect it to become even more competitive in the next 5 years?
  • How do you propose to maintain a competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive business environment?

 

For a copy of the presentation, please email me at:

info@insightpss.com.au

 

 

Advice for Doctors…from a Patient

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We just had to share this.

A reminder of how it feels to be a patient, reliant on the empathy and patience of their doctor.

 

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