Patient Retention: 4 Important Considerations (Part 2)

Editor’s Note: This is Part 2 of a two-part series.

In Part 1 of this topic, we examined two vital areas your healthcare facility will need to address to meet consumer demands: price transparency and corporate social responsibility.  In Part 2, we’ll explore two more areas and more healthcare solutions to help your facility improve patient satisfaction and patient retention.

Shorter Patient Wait Times

As healthcare consumers, patients are increasingly consulting online reviews before choosing a doctor.  According to a recent survey of over 4,500 U.S. patients, information about patient wait times ranks as one of the top three issues patients seek to address from online reviews.  When it comes to seeking administrative information about a practice, patient wait times are the number one concern of online review users (with information about payment/billing coming in second; see Part 1 for ways to address price transparency).

There are many ways you can reduce patient wait times, thereby improving your facility’s online review scores.  For example, hospitals can significantly enhance the waiting experience with an effective patient tracking system that not only shortens their wait but also keeps patients continuously updated on how long the rest of the wait will be.

Convenience

In addition to showing respect for your patients’ time, utilizing a patient tracking system like ActiveTRACK can help you satisfy the consumer’s attraction to convenience.  Here are just a few ways this technology can make a patient’s visit easier and help patient throughput run more smoothly:

1. Display Patient Wait Times- Help patients gauge their remaining wait time with a lobby display screen.

2. Text Alerts- Keep family members updated on a patient’s status with real-time notifications sent directly to their mobile phones.

3. Valet Service- Link your valet service to the discharge process, ensuring each patient’s car is immediately ready and waiting when he/she leaves the facility.

Another healthcare solution that makes a patient’s visit more convenient is bedside registration coupled with electronic signature.  This allows a patient to go directly to his/her room upon arrival and complete registration in the comfort of a bed while signing consent forms electronically.

In today’s world, hospitals need to provide both the personal care that patients need and the technology that consumers desire.  Not only will cutting-edge technology boost your customer appeal, but it will also increase patient satisfaction by making the patient experience more convenient and less stressful.

Higher patient satisfaction means better patient retention.  And if you can encourage your satisfied patients to leave positive online reviews, you may even recruit new patients to your practice.  Implementing healthcare solutions that deliver price transparency, corporate social responsibility, shorter patient wait times, and convenient, innovative technology can help you meet healthcare consumer demands and ensure that your facility is their first choice for treatment.