Patient Satisfaction: The Key to Financial Success

How to Improve Patient Satisfaction?

Any practice needs to understand that happy patients mean financial prosperity and growth to the practice. You need to be able to give them the customer service they demand to the other sectors as they are, as a matter of fact, your consumers for the services you provide. They might be happy with your care and health outcomes but other parts of your practice might be throwing them off like how tedious and long your check-in process might be. Here are 3 ways you can ensure patient satisfaction in your practice:

• Dedicate a part of your staff for payment posting and tracking

Payment posting accuracy is getting more critical with the increasing cost of healthcare. That’s why you need to make more timely and accurate payments as it can make or break your relationship with your patient. For example, your patients can get extremely frustrated if they receive a billing statement when they already have settled their dues. It might lead you to irate patients calling your office for clarification. You might have the record but there is already damage to their trust in your services. Our medical billing experts highly suggest for you to conduct periodic payment posting audits and get a team to dedicatedly track missing payment complaints. 

• Lower your waiting/holding time 

In a fast-tracked world, waiting can be a huge bummer. Medical practices are even known to be notorious for long phone holding times and waiting days for pre-authorizations. Keep in mind that every second a patient needs to wait could mean losing a potential patient trying to contact you.  You could even end up losing that patient you’re putting on hold too. If you keep that up, your patient volume and patient retention rate will gradually decrease. That’s why financial success lies greatly in the happiness of your patients. Our administrative experts suggest that you should improve your patient concierge services and upgrade your pre-authorization processes. 

• Upgrade your revenue cycle management

Patients who encounter an unwanted EOB denial or a statement of an unexpected balance due to a rejected claim are often upset at having to pay for the appointment. Unexpected insurance denials happen, as we all know. However, if the claim is rejected due to inaccurate coding, the patient could continue to second guess the healthcare provider's competence as a result. That’s why you should ensure that only skilled, qualified, and licensed coders work with you to guarantee a seamless claims cycle and happy customers.

With the change of patient responsibility for reimbursement, it's more critical than ever to pay attention to the patient experience during the claims cycle. We urge you to be vigilant and inform your client if you become aware of any problem that can impact the patient experience. When a patient complains to the office, the client will explain that the issue was expected and will be resolved quickly, which will help to ease a patient's anxiety and make the post-visit experience pleasant.

How to Improve Patient Experience?

1. Be visible online

Online presence plays a big role in whatever sector or industry you are in. The post-COVID era or new healthcare normal made this a mandatory requirement if you want your practice to flourish and prosper. Your online presence — including your healthcare website and local directory profiles — is the way to make a great first impression with prospective patients.

Your website is your online home base and serves as a reflection of your practice’s overall brand. To help patients understand what to expect from your practice, make sure you’re offering clear, consistent information on website pages, including the About Us, Service, and Contact pages. Showcase high-quality photos of your practice (both interior and exterior) so patients can get a sense of your brand before they visit. It’s also a great idea to include testimonials from current patients, which helps generate trust.

You’ll also want your practice to be accurately represented beyond your website. Update your profiles on important online business and healthcare directories and include photos, location information, and hours. Make sure your profiles link to your website.

2. Offer online scheduling

Give patients the freedom and convenience to book appointments online with your practice. According to Accenture, 68 percent of healthcare consumers are more likely to choose a doctor who offers the ability to book, cancel, or change appointments online. And 47 percent of patients would consider switching doctors for a practice that offered the ability to complete important healthcare tasks online, such as appointment scheduling, according to Intuit.

Bottom line: Investing in online scheduling for your practice will better satisfy new and returning patients.

3. Send appointment confirmations and reminders

Patients are busy. Help them stay in communication with your practice with appointment confirmations and reminders. Not only do automated reminders let patients know you value their time, but they also help you reduce costly no-shows.

4. Make paperwork available on your website

Cut down on the tedious tasks for patients when they arrive in your waiting room by giving them the option to view, print, and fill out intake forms before their visit. Patients can fill out the necessary paperwork when it’s convenient for them, and avoid completing it in a rush before an appointment.

5. Instruct front office staff to be friendly and helpful

Providing a great experience during a patient’s visit is essential to keep patients coming back. A warm, welcoming attitude from the front office staff helps set the tone from the moment they walk in the door. Simple gestures like saying hello, smiling, and being friendly during the check-in process are often all it takes to start the visit right.

Partner with the Right Team

Let’s boost your patient volume and improve your check-in process with our Remote Patient Concierge Services. DrCatalyst can triple your patient volume by streamlining your administrative and clinical tasks and utilizing top digital marketing strategies, all while staying HIPAA compliant. Talk to our remote medical staffing specialists TODAY.

Schedule a free consultation today!