Patient Satisfaction Defines the Success of a Healthcare Business
By improving patient satisfaction, healthcare businesses aren’t just getting better reimbursements but increasing the chances of their success in many spheres.
Patient satisfaction is one of
the most important metrics of the success of healthcare businesses. Patient
satisfaction today is used by healthcare businesses themselves, along with
government agencies, insurance networks, and third-party payers to determine
how well a healthcare business is doing. It is no surprise then that healthcare
organizations are constantly looking for ways to improve their patient
satisfaction levels.
But while healthcare
businesses are able to understand the importance of patient satisfaction, they
are often unaware of how critical this metric is to the success of their
organization. As a result, patient satisfaction often takes a less prioritized
role within the processes of an organization.
Here is why healthcare
organizations need to look at patient satisfaction from a new lens.
Patient Satisfaction
Patient satisfaction is a
critical indicator that tries to measure how satisfied a patient is with the
level of healthcare that they have received during the course of their care journey.
It is the end result of how the patient feels about their healthcare journey
outside of the treatment outcome itself, though the outcome does have a
significant impact on patient satisfaction as well.
It is important to note that
while patient satisfaction and patient experience are not interchangeable
terms, they are quite closely related. Patient experience refers to the total
sum of interactions, events, feelings, and thoughts that a patient
‘experiences’ during their care journey. It is easily observable that patient
satisfaction is wholly based upon patient experience. Thus, when talking about
improving patient satisfaction mentioning topics like strategies to improve
patient experiences are relevant since both are
directly linked together.
Patient satisfaction is
measured through the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and
Systems (HCAHPS) survey, which scores hospitals across various metrics. This
score is then used, along with several other metrics, is used to determine a
healthcare organization’s star rating given by the Centers for Medicare &
Medicaid Services (CMS). Additionally, the HCAHPS score is also used to
reimburse healthcare providers through Medicare under the Hospital Value-Based
Purchasing (VBP) Program.
Internal surveys and
third-party surveys have also been used to measure patient satisfaction levels
in healthcare organizations.
Impact of patient satisfaction improvement
Apart from the obvious financial
and regulatory benefits, higher patient satisfaction levels also have other
beneficial effects. Studies have shown that higher patient satisfaction levels
have a positive correlation to better patient outcomes, clinical effectiveness,
and patient safety, making it a valuable metric to work upon in order to
improve the quality of care being provided to patients.
While many healthcare
providers scoff at patient satisfaction and experience as being too heavily
influenced by mood, external factors, methodology of the survey, and other
factors, higher patient satisfaction levels have also been noted to have a
positive correlation to higher employee morale and lower staff turnover.
Higher patient satisfaction
levels also lead to lowered risks of malpractices suits.
How to improve patient satisfaction
Patient satisfaction
improvement can simply be boiled down to effective communication, coordination,
and increased empathy. By keeping this simple mantra in mind, healthcare
organizations can start planning on what exact steps are needed to improve
patient experiences in their healthcare setting.
Healthcare businesses can use
Quality Improvement processes developed in other industries to improve patient satisfaction. The use
of the improvement cycle, in particular, presents a clear and strategized way
for healthcare organizations to achieve their goals.
Healthcare organizations must
first plan by identifying their goal and objectives, creating the teams
responsible for achieving those goals. The team would then think of
interventions needed to achieve those goals. In the next step of the
Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle, healthcare organizations must implement the planned
interventions.
The next part of the cycle is
perhaps the most important, as here healthcare organizations monitor the
implemented strategies to test how effective they are, and also test what
changes can be made to make them more aligned with their goals. Finally, in the
last stage of the cycle, based on the progress made newer interventions can be
planned, adopted, and modified as needed.
Conclusion
Healthcare businesses are
defined by their patient satisfaction levels. The success of the healthcare
businesses can be majorly attributed to patient outcomes and patient
satisfaction. While healthcare organizations are constantly trying to improve
both, they often forget how vital a role patient satisfaction plays in the
industry.
Healthcare organizations today
need to focus on improving patient satisfaction as a major priority, but doing
so isn’t easy. By improving the entire patient experience during the continuum
of care, healthcare organizations can also start improving patient satisfaction
levels.
Here’s where BraveLabs comes
in. We aid healthcare organizations to improve metrics like patient experience,
patient engagement, healthcare brand awareness, and brand loyalty. With our
proprietary frameworks and expertise using tools like patient journey
management, BraveLabs helps healthcare businesses
turn patient satisfaction levels all the way up.
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