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Importance of Measuring Patient Satisfaction

In simple words, patient satisfaction is an indicator of how well the patient is being treated. The “how well” doesn’t refer to the quality of care but to which extent a patient is satisfied with the care they receive. Patient Satisfaction is one of the growth factors in the efficiency of hospital care. Nowadays, most of the hospitals are giving attention to the patient experience.

Enhanced Patient Satisfaction will not only lead to enhanced patient experience, but it is also associated with better treatment outcomes.

As per the research, “85% of patients expect their healthcare professionals to be the point of contact for providing services to supervise their condition.”

6 Reasons Why to Measure Patient Satisfaction

Patient Satisfaction is a vital measure of service high quality in healthcare systems. Determining Patient Satisfaction begins with paying attention to your patients and asking them their concerns. Considering that numerous health care companies do not conduct patient satisfaction surveys, however doing so with your patients will go a long way in developing trust in your services. Make sure to review and take action on the data gathered from the patient feedback tool that indicates overarching trends are in your control.

The need to boost Patient Satisfaction is an essential step; it can be a difficult job to understand what changes will result in the most effective outcomes. Health care providers make an assessment when a patient schedules an appointment with a physician. Be it small or big; modifications can enhance a patient’s overall experience. There are numerous reasons why measuring patient satisfaction is just one of the leading concerns for each physician.

Some of the essential steps of why to measure patient satisfaction are:

To know your patient feedback and eliminate the guesswork best way to know whether your customers are satisfied or dissatisfied is by collecting patient feedback. It will also help your customers get a clear picture of patient expectations. They might face issues with appointment scheduling, wait time concerns, etc. Patient Feedback Surveys are an incredible tool for enhancing your healthcare services.
“A customer is likely to spend 31% more on a business with ‘excellent’ reviews.”

To measure the performance and care provided by your staff
Patient Satisfaction Surveys don’t just improve communication with your patients, but also helps in enhancing the overall performance. Measurement is essential for improving the quality of healthcare services and how well a healthcare provider is performing. It also captures what hospitals do and compare it with the targeted goals to identify what are the primary services which require improvement. There are different parameters on which performance can be measured, like the length of stay, doctor appointment scheduling, patient wait time, cost of the treatment, etc.

Feedback surveys will help in measuring hospital performance against set explicit standards by the healthcare provider.

“65% of patients say transparency regarding the cost of healthcare services is very important for the overall satisfaction.”

To know miffed and angry patients and to reach out to them
If a healthcare provider fails to provide a positive experience, then patients would be dissatisfied with your services, and they will tend to raise their complaints. They will highlight their issues, whether the problem is with your services or treatment.

Interacting with their issues directly from them will help hospitals prevent further complaints in the near future and improve their performance.

“13% of unhappy customers will share their complaint with 15 or more people.”

To improve patient care
Improving patient care has become a top priority for all healthcare providers. Communication is one of the biggest challenges, and it can take an ample amount of time to implement the smallest challenge. Collecting feedback is one thing, and successfully implementing it will improve patient care.

Reaching out to your patients will help you improve and gather valuable insights about why your patients like or dislike your services. Both negative and positive feedback should be taken into account to improve overall patient care.

“68% of patients prefer to select medical providers which offer the option to book, modify or cancel appointments online.

To Boost Patient Engagement and Improve Patient Retention
Always remember one thing that happy patients will always come back and refer your services to others. Collecting patient feedback will help in enhanced patient engagement. Give importance to them as their positive/negative feedback can help you improve your services. We all know that the cost of patient acquisition is high; therefore, retaining the old ones will result in reduced turnover, increased loyalty, and extended lifetime value.

Failing to deliver services as per a patient’s expectations means losing them forever. Patient satisfaction is not just a bonus point, but it is a considerable investment that will play a significant role in the long-term.

“A 2% increase in patient retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10%.”

To Attract More Patients: It’s a universal truth that when it comes to health, we trust friends and family first as compared to any other social media marketing channel and third-party review websites.
Enhancing patient services will help medical practitioners to build up a positive image. It will help build trust amongst the existing patients and attract new ones. As a marketing strategy, word-of-mouth proves to be more reliable and less expensive than other marketing methods.

“If you satisfy 1 patient, then it reaches 4 more patients. If you alienate 1 patient, then it reaches 10 potential patients.”

To Reach Better Clinical Outcomes: There is another benefit of high patient satisfaction and excellent doctor-patient communication. In simple terms, the effectiveness of the treatment depends upon numerous factors; one among them is how much patients trust their doctor.
The probability is high that patients are more likely to trust their physician’s judgment, especially when they feel more content with the care they receive. Meeting your patient’s expectations not just raises their satisfaction level to a great extent but also makes your job easier.

“According to a study done in Academic Medicine, patients that trust their doctors have far better clinical outcomes.”

To Attract Patient Loyalty and Growth: By consistently providing patient satisfaction experience, medical practices or outpatient care can win patient loyalty and, therefore, can result in high demand as a provider.
With positive patient feedback, you can get new patients and is a key to the growth of your practice. A patient receiving healthcare services which no other hospital can provide is less likely to switch their preferred medical facility.

“Greater patient loyalty means more referrals and word-of-mouth business.”

Measuring patient satisfaction can help you improve the overall patient experience. It can help healthcare centers by strengthening patient loyalty, building credibility, and boosting the usage of hospital services with the help of increased referrals. If you want to collect patient feedback from numerous locations distributed across all healthcare centers, then making use of Patient Survey Software is the right choice. It will help physicians to identify gaps in healthcare, enhance the quality of care, and improve patient engagement and overall satisfaction.