Patient Satisfaction Importance for Healthcare

Introduction

Patient satisfaction with the quality of medical care is an essential parameter of the work of a medical clinic. Quality patient experience is a crucial indicator of the quality of healthcare since it reveals how well the provider meets clients’ expectations and is a major factor in determining patients’ viewpoint and behavioral intention. Patients want a pleasing experience with their care, and doctors and nurses want to deliver quality healthcare, but these two goals are not always in sync (Guideway Care, 2019). At the same time, health systems are aware of the significance of enhancing the patient care experience, yet they frequently use patient satisfaction as a motivator for outcomes (Bickmore and Merkley, 2019). Health systems place a high premium on raising patient satisfaction rates, and the general quality of care patients receive. Patient contentment is linked to significant results, including better compliance, reduced use of medical services, fewer malpractice lawsuits, and better prognosis.

Hospital staff members, including doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals, are aware that improving patient happiness is a key objective. Healthcare organizations work to ensure that their patients are happy with all parts of their experiences, including those that are not directly related to their medical care and its results. Patients should feel treated with dignity and that hospital staff is doing all possible to care them safely and effectively, according to providers (Patient Satisfaction Surveys, 2018). These factors are the main drivers behind why health care businesses have long attempted to comprehend their patients’ opinions.

However, there are some challenges when providing better patient care. According to Alida (2020), these include a lack of leadership to drive patient centricity, slow feedback, and lagging behind other industries. Moreover, the digital transformation of the current system for appointments and other services is complex (Medicai, 2021). Every encounter in a doctor’s office or hospital can impact patient satisfaction, including how the waiting area is decorated, how the receptionist greets the patient, and what you wear (Chandra, Ward and Mohammednezhad, 2019). The most crucial component, however, is the patient’s comfort (Eisenberg, 2020). When entering a hospital or clinic, a patient is already dealing with their health issues, which complicates their predicament if they also need to undergo complicated hospital procedures (Dawer, 2019). It is important to arrange things, so patients and their loved ones do not have to wait in line for extended periods (Glaser, 2021). Therefore, making the processes like appointments, check-ins, and check-outs simpler for the patients is the first step in ensuring their satisfaction.

Hickory Medical Clinic Case Study

What conclusions do you reach from the satisfaction survey results?

Although scheduling patients may appear to be a straightforward operation, effective scheduling has a significant impact on patient satisfaction levels and how fast patients can get the proper care. According to Rodriguez (2022), an easy-to-use and technologically advanced healthcare experience are now crucial for increasing patient satisfaction. Currently, scheduling for outpatient services must be done independently, and the patient is responsible for organizing everything (Wang, Muthuraman, and Morrice, 2019). Numerous inefficiencies result from this strategy, including increased missed appointments and intolerable access waits. However, as the problem of making an appointment is becoming more crucial among patients, Zhao et al. (2017) suggest implementing a web-based system to make selections fast and comfortable.

According to the Hickory Medical Clinic patient satisfaction study, 12 percent of patients were dissatisfied with the appointment method. I believe that more staff are needed for a better process design so that patients may receive more attention. Moreover, I think the complicated and old system operators and receptionists use to make appointments frustrates patients. Therefore, using an automated system could be implemented to solve the issue. The design needs to consider each doctor’s schedule and count the number of appointments (An and Zhang, 2019). Changing the current methodological approach to automated systems would solve the issue.

Waiting to see a physician is another common phenomenon in a doctor’s waiting room. According to Ahmad, Khairatul, and Farnaza (2017), the majority of the patients wait about 30 minutes to get a medical consultation. The reason is a shortage of physicians and an increasing number of people getting health insurance (Mills, 2017). Patients, doctors, workers, and management are all irritated by the primary care clinics’ ineffective clinic systems that result in lengthy wait times. Moving more patients through in a faster cycle time has the potential to increase patient experience, staff satisfaction, and patient access (Robinson et al., 2020). Meanwhile, patient pre-registration can also be an important tactic for streamlining the intake and onboarding procedure, which is frequently slowed down by challenging administrative and data gathering chores.

Twenty-five percent of patients were dissatisfied with the check-in and check-out process. Due to the high repeatability of appointments and check-ins and check-outs, I believe that there should be a particular set of rules that need to be followed by the hospitals to control the process. Pre-registration aids businesses in producing a better customer experience and more patient satisfaction by gathering patient intake information before the visit (Heath, 2017).

Responsiveness to phone calls related to care has the highest index of dissatisfaction among other care and treatment aspects. I think the problem is related to the lack of facility to get a convenient appointment and ease on the phone to get through. The current system works the way that the patient waits a certain amount of time to get a response from the medical worker. Meanwhile, the administrators and operators need to manage multiple calls and schedule patients simultaneously. Therefore, the quality of the phone call service depends on the operators. I believe an automated system would save much time both for patients and workers as it would automatically provide patients with access to medical centers and appointments.

Process improvements and development of a new flowchart

According to the flowchart (Figure 1), the administrator will get a list of the calls that need to be returned alongside an estimated time. Meanwhile, the system will send the customer an estimated return call time. The system will track the administrator’s response time and note their call. This will guarantee that finding a suitable appointment is simple. The main drawback of the flowchart is that the secretary must call patients back repeatedly, but this expense can be effectively countered by avoiding paying the operator’s wage.

Conclusion

The degree to which people are satisfied with their medical care, both within and outside the doctor’s office, is known as patient satisfaction. Patient happiness with the medical service is a gauge of the caliber of the care received. It offers medical professionals the information about several medical issues, including the efficiency of their treatment and degree of empathy. Quality patient experience, a crucial aspect of healthcare quality, includes several aspects of care delivery that patients highly value when they seek and receive care, such as scheduling timely appointments, having easy access to information, and having good communication with healthcare professionals. Patient satisfaction is a crucial indicator of the quality of healthcare because it provides information on the provider’s performance in meeting the client’s most critical expectations and is a significant factor in determining patients’ viewpoint and behavioral intention.

Reference List

Ahmad, B.A., Khairatul, K. and Farnaza, A. (2017) ‘An assessment of patient waiting and consultation time in a primary healthcare clinic’, Malaysian Family Physician, 12(1), pp. 14-21.

An, Z. and Zhang, X. (2019) ‘System design of multiple network platform outpatient appointment registration system for large general hospitals’, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1288.

Bickmore, A. M. and Merkley, K. (2019) ‘The top five recommendations for improving the patient experience’, HealthCatalyst. 

Chandra, S., Ward, P. and Mohammednezhad, M. (2019) ‘Factors associated with patient satisfaction in outpatient department of Suva Subdivisional Health Centre, Fiji, 2018: A Mixed Method Study’, Frontiers in Public Health. 

Dawer, N. (2019) ‘6 best ways to ensure patient satisfaction at your hospitals & clinics’.

Eisenberg, A. (2020) ‘What is patient satisfaction and why does it matter?’, Wolters Kluwer. 

Glaser, J. (2021) ‘5 principles to improve the patient experience’, Harvard Business Review.

Heath, S. (2017) ‘Patient pre-registration tips for a quality consumer experience’, Patient Engagement.

Mills, D. (2017) ‘Why you have to wait longer to get a doctor’s appointment’, Healthline.

Patient Satisfaction Surveys (2018).

Patient Satisfaction: What It Is, Why It Matters & How to Improve It (2019).

Robinson, J. et al. (2020) ‘Losing the wait: improving patient cycle time in primary care’, BMJ Open Quality. 

Rodriguez, S. (2022) ‘Convenience, technology use can boost patient satisfaction’, Patient Engagement. 

Top Challenges in Improving the Patient Experience (2021).

Wang, D., Muthuraman, K. and Morrice, D. (2019) ‘Coordinated patient appointment scheduling for a multistation healthcare network’, Operations Research, 67(3), pp. 599-904.

Zhao, P. et al. (2017) ‘Web-based medical appointment systems: A systematic review’, Journal of Medical Internet Research, 19(4).