James Merlino, MD, chief experience officer at Cleveland Clinic and president and founder of the Association for Patient Experience, highlighted the importance of customer service in healthcare in a report in The Exchange.
Dr. Merlino differentiates "keeping patients happy" from delivering a positive patient experience, which is more about a hospital's and provider's approach to care, he wrote. He said two basic factors — attention and communication — are at the heart of good customer service in healthcare, as in other industries.
He argues that healthcare lags other industries in providing great customer service but that incentives under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, such as the Value-Based Purchasing Program, which includes HCAHPS scores in payment determinations, are changing that trend.
"Customer service in the healthcare industry is an idea whose time has come — and it deserves serious attention," he wrote. "It's up to us to deliver it so we not only deliver the best possible care, but so that in return we are given something that every business covets: satisfied and repeat customers."
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