What makes a good healthcare experience? It depends on who you ask, according to a recent survey conducted by the digital health company Qinec.
Qinec interviewed 100 providers and 500 outpatients in the United States to find out what makes a healthcare experience exceptional. The results of the survey revealed patients have different expectations from providers regarding the patient journey, as well as the referral and follow-up stages.
Here are six findings from the survey.
1. Patients today expect more than just good treatment. The patients surveyed indicated the most important factors in determining a good patient experience include a responsive and well organized service (75 percent), interest and care about patient's welfare (64 percent) and effectiveness of treatment (61 percent).
2. Patients also want to feel supported throughout their treatment. Nearly half of patients said that a lack of follow-up (46 percent) and empathy (40 percent) over patient welfare were the biggest reasons for experiencing a negative treatment experience.
3. Nearly one quarter (23 percent) of patients believe the level of follow-up care is the single biggest area which requires improvement during the treatment process.
4. Patients and providers alike understand the role that technology plays in delivering an effective patient experience, but a majority (81 percent) of providers admit they can do more as part of the follow-up care.
5. More than half (54 percent) of providers indicated they have tools in place to manage the patient journey, but many have experienced issues aligning resources to patient needs, contacting patients on short notice and transferring patient data between locations or departments.
6. Approximately 70 percent of providers believe their organization could treat people more quickly and effectively if they had better patient data consolidation and coordination.
"For transformation to be long lasting and effective, providers need to rethink how to model and deliver entire care pathways to produce the best end-to-end experience," said Robbie Hughes, CEO of Qinec. "We can see from this survey that U.S. healthcare providers are embracing digital technologies to manage patient journeys, but for it to be transformational, it cannot be siloed and disparate."
To download the full survey findings, click here.
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