Improving patient experience is the best way to attract patients to any medical office. Don’t forget, the word “healthcare” contains the word “care” — as in actually caring for patients.

But, what is patient experience?

The sum of all interactions, shaped by a medical office’s culture that influences patient perceptions across the entire patient journey.

Patient experience encompasses all the interactions a patient has with a healthcare organization. This includes the treatment medical staff gives to patients. It covers aspects that patients value when seeking medical attention. For example:

• Creating connections with patients
• Easy access to information
• Obtaining timely appointments
• Good communication with the healthcare provider
• Time spent with the physician
• The way diagnosis, treatment and care are explained (answering questions, listening to concerns)
• Physician and staff friendliness
• Amount of information provided to the patient.

All that together affects the intentions to use the clinic again and recommending it to others. That’s why these factors help with improving patient experience and enjoying the benefits.

Research about benefits of improving patient experience

According to a research conducted by The Beryl Institute https://www.theberylinstitute.org/store/ViewProduct.aspx?ID=13390533 91% of patients confirm that the experience is extremely/very important overall and is significant to the decisions they will make.

78% of patients identify their personal health and wellbeing as the primary reason that patient experience is important.

72% of patients identify recommendations of family and friends as important in their decisions about healthcare.
69% of patients believe a good experience contributes to their good health outcomes.

Patients affirm that human interactions are most important to them when it comes to patient experience, followed by the processes they encounter and then the place in which they receive care.

Being listened to, communicating with a physician in a way they can understand and treated with respect are the three most important factors influencing patients’ experience. More reasons to think about improving patient experience, don’t you agree?

Patients judge your medical office before they even consider making an appointment. Remember, making a good impression starts with a well-designed, patient friendly website where the public can learn about your practice and they can get their questions answered. Don’t forget to include interactive tools that allow patients access to even more information as directions to the office, a way to make payments, schedule follow-up appointments, and communicate through e-mail or live chat.

Once you have their attention and they come for an appointment, the first thing they will notice is your interior design. You need to think in advance about a lot of things related to healthcare design because it is also important when it comes to improving patient experience. Having an old-fashioned medical office won’t help. In order to grab your patients attention from the very beginning they enter the office, you need to think about hiring an interior designer who will find ways in improving the patient experience.

Benefits of improving the patient experience

Improving the patient experience has a lot of benefits not only for the patients, but the clinics treating them as well. Start by focusing on these 5 to revamp what your patient experience with you:

1. Better financial results

Who wouldn’t want to make more money? Improving patient experience helps you increase revenue.

Medical offices with high satisfaction ratings have better financial results. Satisfied patients are more likely to recommend the facility to family and friends.

2. Patient retention

One way to have more patients is by improving patient experience.

Modern patients go online and compare the ratings and read reviews of medical offices and clinics way before they contact one. Word-of-mouth is getting more and more important. Considering the competition between healthcare providers, positive reviews impact patient retention.

3. Healthier patients

Improving patient experience, leads to better health outcomes. The happier and healthier your patients, the better your financial results as well.

4. Patient loyalty

Guess what consistently improving patient experience gets you! If you thought of patient loyalty, you are right!

And guess what else? Loyal patients result in more positive reviews, more word-of-mouth and better results. And all those loyal patients will bring you new patients which means your business is growing.

5. Better patient engagement

Improving patient experience involves treating patients as individuals and engaging them in their own health outcomes.

There are a lot of things you can do to have better patient engagement:

• Responding concerns, doubts and complaints
• Making sure nurses keep the patients informed
• Responding promptly
• Improving communication
• Sending texts as reminders for appointments
• Educating patients about your services.

This means answering phones promptly and being willing to answer all of their questions. At the end of the patient’s interaction be sure to ask is there is anything else you can do for him/her. Improving patient experience and enjoying these benefits depends on every member of your team.

Don’t forget that interior designer helps a lot with improving patient experience because without an inviting design, their experience won’t be seamless and they may not come back.