How to improve patient experience in healthcare

It says a lot about the economic realities of modern-day health care that one of America’s most prestigious learning institutions has a course dedicated to the subject¹. Under the stewardship of Professor Leemore Dafny, Harvard Business School students can enrol in ‘Understanding Business Strategy to Facilitate Health Care Success’ and explore how the sector’s leaders can best deal with the unique challenges and structures of their complex organizations.

While many patients would like to believe that health care is a community service, the reality is today’s hospitals and health services face the same pressures as any corporate enterprise. They compete against each other for ‘business’. Managers need to drive revenues and balance budgets. The battle for talent is intense and innovation is critical.

As noted on Harvard Online: “The business of health care in the United States is complicated.”² This extends to patient experience, which should be a priority for all health systems but differs somewhat from the world of customer experience. While consumers typically have a choice to participate in the latter, patient experience revolves around people who are often forced to engage in an interaction. Buying a consumer product may be important but it is rarely as emotive or life-changing as being a patient.

Given its ability to deliver benefits such as greater health outcomes, patient retention and additional revenue, it has never been more important for health leaders to invest in patient experience. This article will outline the four pillars of patient experience, share tips for measuring and increasing results and show how outsourcing can make a positive difference.

What is patient experience?

Patient experience refers to the multiple interactions that someone has with a healthcare provider, from the quality of care they receive from clinicians to their ability to seamlessly access information from support staff. It is a vital measure as it allows healthcare leaders to assess whether patients are receiving care that is respectful of and responsive to their individual preferences, needs and values.

^{Source: Improve Patient Experience - Strategies | Performance Health (performancehealthus.com)}

What are the four pillars of patient experience?

There are four pillars of patient experience that healthcare providers should consider when looking to meet the community’s needs.

1. Environment: first impressions count, which is why hospitals and health services should create a welcoming environment for patients. Physical atmosphere has a direct impact on how people feel and, in a healthcare setting, can affect a person’s perception of how their care went. This goes beyond the non-negotiable of clinical cleanliness. Ensure staff are going above and beyond to treat patients with respect and friendliness and, in turn, creating a safe and comfortable environment. 
2. Expectations: one of the most crucial pillars of patient experience revolves around managing their expectations. When someone enters a healthcare setting, they have a preordained vision of what will unfold and it is the responsibility of their caregivers to ensure they do not leave disappointed. The key is to strive for consistency and deliver an experience that is predictable and, in turn, fulfilling.
3. Care: patient care extends well beyond what happens in an operating room or rehab session. While clinical care is clearly crucial, every aspect of a patient’s visit needs to be taken into account including conversation and engagement. In the bid to deliver quality physical care, many health professionals forget to consider the emotional needs of a patient. Conversely, those who take feelings, fears and care goals into account stand out from the crowd.
4. Value: the final pillar of patient experience is one familiar to anyone that runs a consumer-facing enterprise. Delivering value is about more than simply offering cheaper care or better treatments. From charging what a service is worth to going above and beyond to add further value, it requires teams to bring together multiple factors with the ultimate goal of ensuring patients walk away feeling their exact needs were met at an acceptable price.

What are the benefits of improved patient experience?

There are numerous reasons to pursue improved patient experience including:

• Better health outcomes: researchers have no doubt that positive patient experience has a direct impact on better health outcomes. This includes one study of almost 6500 heart attack patients across 25 hospitals found that every 25% increase in patient experience scores resulted in a 25% boost in predicted survival³. Similar results were found among diabetic patients, with those who reported better communication and overall patient experience with their providers having better blood sugar control and fewer functional limits⁴.
• Increased revenue: don’t just take our word for it. Deloitte’s highly respected Center for Health Solutions conducted a study that found hospitals with high patient-reported experience scores have higher profitability⁵, while Accenture says hospitals with optimal patient experience tend to deliver 50% higher profit margins than hospitals with average results⁶.
• Better staff experience: dealing with satisfied patients can have an overwhelmingly positive impact on the clinicians and staff who serve them. Along with reducing employee turnover, this has also been known to increase productivity and, ironically, foster an environment that further benefits patient experience. 
• Improved safety: a byproduct of providing healthcare staff with the resources they need to focus on patient experience is they can put additional emphasis on safety protocols. Be it ensuring procedures are done correctly or clinical records are maintained to optimum standards, this helps prevent errors and improves patient safety in the long term.
• Lower ongoing costs: repeat patients can be a financial drain on hospitals and health services, which is why managers appreciate that those who have positive care experiences tend to require fewer tests and treatments. Similarly, increased patient satisfaction inspires better engagement and, in turn, helps prevent costly hospital readmissions.

How can you measure patient experience?

Healthcare organizations can use a variety of tools to measure patient experience including:

• Surveys : ask and you will receive and so it is with patient experience surveys. These strategic tools contain questions about patients’ perceptions of their hospitals or providers’ services and have traditionally been handed out in clinics but are increasingly distributed via email and SMS or even offered on interactive screens in facilities to obtain real-time feedback.
• Focus groups: for deeper insights, hospitals and health services should consider assembling focus groups as it allows them to interact with patients in person. While they can be more difficult and costly to organize, the smaller sample group typically provides more expansive data that is easier to analyze than countless survey responses.
• Complaints forums: the truth may sometimes hurt but it is essential to allow patients to express concerns or complaints. By assessing feedback in online directories, social media or filed directly with a health organization or clinic, managers have a better understanding of their patients and are one step closer to lifting their experiences.
• Patient stories: inviting patients to share their experiences via written, audio or video recordings is an excellent way for health services to gain more emotive insights into interactions. The non-threatening nature of patient stories invites people to speak from the heart and often reflect on the more positive aspects of their health journeys.

^{Source: Patient Satisfaction Survey Examples To Improve the Patient Experience (softwareadvice.com)}

How can you improve patient experience?

An American Academy of Physician Associates study found almost 75% of adults believe the U.S. healthcare system is failing them⁷. To buck the trend, consider these tips for improving patient experience.

• Minimize wait times: one of the biggest reasons for unhappy patients happens before they even see a clinician. Reducing long wait times is a fast track to better patient experience so make every effort to avoid overbooking. If delays are unavoidable, ease the frustration by providing regular updates.
• Reduce paperwork: do you hate being asked to provide the same information every time you contact a service provider? The same goes for patients, which is why you should keep any necessary information or documents online and ask for confirmation rather than forcing them to repeatedly fill out forms.
• Encourage employee engagement: there is nothing like an engaged employee to inspire confidence and calmness within a patient. Start by providing staff with the tools and systems they need to do their jobs before considering additional morale-boosting exercises such as recognition programs and skills develop programs.
• Use innovative technology: make life easier for staff and patients by embracing the latest tech. The likes of centralized electronic solutions for staff communication help deliver smoother care, while incident reporting systems that integrate with electronic health records reduce the need for time-consuming and unreliable paper forms. QR codes are another great innovation for self check-in and patient feedback.
• Consider outsourcing: an increasing number of health operators are partnering with quality outsourcing providers in a bid to bolster patient experience. Along with the obvious cost benefits, assigning repetitive and time-consuming tasks to offshore experts (eg: medical transcription, coding and customer service) allows in-house clinicians and staff to spend more time engaging with patients, which is great news for both parties.

Conclusion

There is an obvious reason why healthcare professionals should aim to deliver positive patient experiences. Doing what they can to ease the physical and emotional toll of clinical journeys on the people they care for is a worthy pursuit. However, there is no denying that improving patient experience also delivers many benefits for the healthcare services themselves.

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