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It's impossible to be 1,000 times better than other medical offices, but you can be better in a 1,000 small ways. During highly competitive times, all practices are looking for ways to set themselves apart from the others, so it becomes harder to be successful. The fastest and most effective way to stand out from the competition is to focus on your service -- and how you make your customers feel.
Customer service has never been more important than it is today. What does a client or patient want? Statistics show whether you are the customer or a patient, you want three things:
- Friendliness
- Reasonable wait times
- Good atmosphere
How does your office rank in these areas? Let's look at five ways to increase your patient satisfaction:
Be Mindful of Scheduling
The No. 1 frustration of patients is waiting. People are busy today, more so than in the past. The technologic world has enabled everyone to do so much more in less time, so your patients are more impatient and stressed. People do count up the faults of those who keep them waiting.
One thing you can do to speed up wait times is focus on appropriate scheduling. First, realize the healthcare provider can only be in one place at one time.
Next, providers must realize they have to get to their patient on time. Ask the staff to notify you immediately after the initial assessment is completed. Mentally plan your examinations during times your staff can step in and help you, thereby not keeping the existing patient waiting. The rule is that you should not keep your patient waiting more than 10 to 15 minutes. In many healthcare settings, wait times can reach 222 minutes!
Do a time-and-motion study to determine the actual time needed for each appointment from the moment the patient is escorted back to the time he or she is dismissed. If you treat children, keep in mind that the parent of the child will be especially impatient. Women tend to multitask; if you're keeping a female patient or mother of a child waiting, she'll be even more impatient than your male patients.
If you have open time in the schedule, focus on improving the level of services provided rather than stretching the appointment time. List appointment types and expected length. Use booking templates; review the templates with the booking staff, and then make sure they're followed. Allow for more "urgent" visits. Rather than having a policy of booking days or weeks ahead, ask patients if they'd like to come in that afternoon as long as the wait time is reasonable.
Schedule for Effectiveness and Productivity
If you schedule appropriately, you will not be stressed out. Running around like a chicken with its head cut off does not facilitate a friendly and caring atmosphere! Scheduling more than one treatment room certainly increases efficiency, but base the scheduling of the adjacent treatment rooms dependent on the number of staff members that are able to assist you. Any additionally scheduled treatment rooms should be dovetailed, with 70% of the provider's time in one and 30% in another treatment room.
Also, remember this phrase: Comprehensive care will always be more productive than single service, emergency care. Your patients will appreciate the ability to have as much as possible done in one appointment. In today's economy, patients are especially concerned about missing work. Any diagnostic tests, x-rays or treatments that can be done in a single appointment will save your patient time and make your practice unique.
Scheduling for productivity means you'll need to identify the healthcare provider's ideal day. What are your goals? Are the goals in a written form that the staff can review on a regular basis? Providers, if you have goals, are you diagnosing the kind of treatment you desire to perform; the kind of treatment your patients need and deserve? Scheduling for productivity does not mean influencing treatment that is unethical. It means discussing the treatment options that fit the needs of the patients, explaining the ramifications of such treatment and giving the patient your opinion of their best option.
Get Done on Time
Take a lunch, if you schedule for lunch. Constantly running late will decrease morale and affect your office atmosphere! If your office is continually running late, it's a scheduling problem and is not respectful to the team. Team members will pray for a broken appointment if they do not have time to use the bathroom or eat lunch.
Occasionally running over is acceptable in a healthcare environment, but consistent lateness is a bad habit and needs to be discussed at your team meetings. Staff members will burn out, and you will lose key, long-term employees -- and all staff members are key! The cost of high turnover to the practice is huge when you include the hiring process, training and decrease in morale for every lost team member.
Conduct Team Meetings
Schedule for success by planning and protecting time for effective and productive team meetings. Teams need the ability to communicate not only what's right, but what's wrong. If you have a resistant team, consider whether or not you're involving them in the process.
Have an effective morning team meeting. You can schedule time to focus on patients who have had a change in their life: a birth, death, birthday, vacation, etc. Then communicate with the patient, pleasantly surprising them. Also, staff should review records the day prior, noting patients who owe money, are past due for annual physicals, or need treatment that was diagnosed but not completed. Use your morning meetings and staff meetings as a tool to facilitate your ability to connect with your patients' concerns and needs.
Concentrate on Good Communication
The number one reason for malpractice is poor communication. A recent article in the Journal of the American Medicine Association said that on average physicians interrupt patients within the first 23 seconds. If the patient had continued to speak, the average additional time taken was 6 seconds. If your patient is angry or upset due to a long wait, effective communication may be hampered.
How do you increase customer satisfaction? By focusing on what people want. Patients want to be listened to and want to be seen in a timely fashion. Team training is crucial to your success. What do patients want? They want a continual and on-time practice that schedules well not only for patient care, but also for team development.
Rhonda Savage is an internationally acclaimed speaker and CEO for a well-known practice management and consulting business. As past president of the Washington State Dental Association, she is active in organized dentistry and has been in private practice for more than 16 years. Savage is a noted speaker on practice management, women's issues, communication and leadership, and zoo dentistry. For more information, visit www.DentalManagementU.com or e-mail rhonda@dentalmanagementu.com.
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