Clinicians relive the same "improve patient satisfaction" training scenario over and over.
- The clinicians get called into a meeting to discuss how to improve patient satisfaction. Sometimes, the meeting involves a manager giving pointers on how to provide good customer service. Other times, employers will pay big money to have experts, or those in the know from a service industry, come to the workplace to do a special workshop.
- There is an example given - it usually involves how customers are best treated when they walk into a clothing store or a restaurant. Customers should be greeted with a smile, the presenters explain. They assert that clinicians should behave like sales clerks or waitstaff, smiling and serving up whatever the patients ask for.
All too often, employers make the mistake of treating clinicians like maître d’s, waitstaff, or sales clerks in training. Healthcare gets viewed as a business where the customers are patients, and the clinicians are providing a service. Just like they are waiting tables, or assisting with the purchase of goods, healthcare providers are expected to efficiently move the patient through with a smile.
- How often do you go to your neighborhood restaurant when you have the flu?
- Do you try to hobble in to your favorite clothing store when you throw out your back?
- When you are under the weather, or injured are you typically in a good mood? Are you nervous, or worried?
Patients seek out healthcare advice and a fix for whatever situation they are in. Most people look forward to going to restaurants or stores.
The type anticipation that people have for going to favorite stores or restaurants does not hold true for visiting their local healthcare provider.
Patient perception and satisfaction is important. Often times, people have a choice of which hospitals and healthcare providers they utilize, and they will go to the place where they think that they will get the best care. So how do you get clinicians to buy into the idea of providing good service, or making patients happy?
1. Building relationships is key
Allow clinicians to build good relationships with patients.
If the clinician better understands his or her patients, their backgrounds, their concerns and their beliefs, then the clinician can guide those patient to make better decisions regarding their care.
Some studies suggest that a positive patient-clinician relationship can influence patient adherence to treatment as well as healthcare outcomes.1,3 Communication between patients and clinicians may also have an influence on outcomes. Good communication between these groups may lead to patient understanding, trust and clinician- patient understanding.6
Often, this type of interaction with the patient is difficult, or not lucrative to bill for; however, it can make the rest of the clinicians’ interactions with the patient more positive and efficient.
Building a good relationship with patients is helpful in getting the patient to trust their clinician and to be compliant with treatment. Patient noncompliance is a huge problem in healthcare.5 A strong patient- clinician relationship can improve patient outcomes.
So why are managers putting clinicians through customer service training where they are told to answer the phone with a smile, or personally escort patients to the restroom? Make clinicians aware of how their relationship with patients can affect their outcomes.
2. Show the evidence
Doctors, nurses, optometrists, therapists and other types of clinical personnel are analytical. They like to take data, whether it is a patient’s vitals, range of motion, strength tests, or lab tests and make an assessment.
Reviewing studies, and exploring how creating a good relationship with patients can improve outcomes is more likely to get healthcare clinicians to buy in. Instead of holding a meeting where you tell your clinical staff to provide service with a smile, why don’t you point out some of these studies to them…or better yet, have them read the studies.
A systematic review of therapist-patient relations in treatment outcomes in physical therapy found that several different diagnosis groups responded positively to therapeutic alliance. Compliance to treatment in patients with brain injuries and patients with multiple pathologies increased with positive therapeutic alliances (the relationship between a healthcare professional and a patient).
Geriatric patients and patients with chronic low back pain also showed positive correlations in treatment satisfaction and therapeutic alliance.3 In a randomized control study examining outcomes in 182 patients with chronic low back pain, therapeutic alliance was a predictor of improvements in all outcomes including global perceived effect of treatment, function, pain and disability.2
3. Give good advice to employees
When you're working with clinicians to improve patient satisfaction, remember to provide solid examples of how to show interest in patients' lives.
- Make eye contact with patients
- Find a way to relate to patients (“Oh, I know the traffic is horrible”)
- Remember details about patients' personal lives, then asking them about them on follow-up appointments (“How was your daughter’s birthday party last weekend?”)
Spending a few extra minutes with a patient can make a huge difference in their perception of a clinician. Being able to relate to patients will also help to build a good patient-clinician relationship. While more research needs to be done to better understand this patient-clinician alliance, there is evidence that bolstering this relationship can improve outcomes.
Making clinicians aware of these findings is a step in the right direction of getting them to buy in to patient satisfaction. As a result, the patient is more likely to adhere to their treatment, report less pain, and be satisfied with the care they receive. Satisfied patients will return to future care. Compliant patients will cost less to treat.
Wasn’t this something that you were trying to achieve in the first place?
