Patient loyalty and satisfaction is linked to three main themes — coordination, communication and empathy — according to recent research conducted and published by Press Ganey.
By focusing improvement efforts in these three areas, healthcare providers may not only improve patient satisfaction and loyalty, they may enhance market share and allow personnel to feel more pride in their work, reducing turnover.
Highlighted below are five basic steps healthcare providers should follow to improve care coordination, communication and clinician empathy, according to the report.
1. Develop a shared patient care vision. Having one overarching, patient-focused goal can align and engage healthcare workers.
2. Measure patient feedback. To organize care around patients' needs, providers must first measure how they are doing in that area already. Electronic surveying is one quick, efficient way to do so.
3. Hold clinicians accountable. Using survey results and data, feedback can be given to the appropriate patient care units. Financial and nonfinancial incentives can be useful to hold individuals and units accountable for care.
4. Prioritize care coordination. While individual physician reliability is important, healthcare is very complex today as it involves many personnel. That means clinicians need to place a greater deal of emphasis on care coordination.
5. Make excellence a core value. For patients to feel confident and loyal to a physician or hospital, they need to feel they can trust everyone involved in their care. Some organizations conduct "appreciative inquiries," deconstructing cases in which care was excellent so clinicians know which good practices to imitate.