by Nels Peterson and Philip Rohs
You don’t have to look farther than the billboards lining the freeways to know how important attracting and retaining patients has become to healthcare organizations. Successful healthcare organizations have found that a committed focus on improving the patient experience as much, or more than, marketing, contributes to the organization’s success.
While this is good news for patients, improving the patient experience is no easy task when trying to control costs in a rising cost environment. Historically, the focus has been on the patient experience within the clinic or hospital setting. This article will explore another, yet just as critical facet of the patient experience, “after care.” Because relatively little attention has been paid to this area, opportunities for improvement abound.
After care experiences, anything that happens post-clinic or post-hospital visit vary widely. For patients, the billing process is often an area of intense frustration and confusion. The statements may not be clear and attempts to gather information through the patient call center are not always efficient and frustrating. Such experiences erode the goodwill the patient may feel for the service providers at the clinic or hospital.
According to a 2009 Press Ganey report, the group most dissatisfied with their healthcare experience are those age 49 and younger. Why is this so? Younger generations are more accustomed to faster, easier, and more accessible service from every industry, including healthcare. Younger patients expect administrative ease and are prepared to demand it, through their choices of service providers. They are technologically savvy. Sophisticated healthcare organizations realize these are their future patients and are changing the way they do things to meet the demands of these healthcare consumers.
If your organization hasn’t taken a close look at your patient statement within the past eighteen months, you need to do so. Can your patients easily understand who the statement is from and the description of services received? Make this as painless as possible for your patients because, in addition to improving their experience, an effective statement is your tool to more quickly and efficiently collect payment.
Besides maximizing patient statement potential, leading healthcare organizations are also offering their patient electronic statements and the option of making payments online. Barcode technologies have even made payment available through a patient’s smart phone or PDA. What is known as a quick response bar code can be inserted on patient statements. This two dimensional bar code can be photographed with a smart phone. The code has critical information from the statement and links the patient to a pre-populated payment site. Payment is as easy as entering credit card information into the phone.
Once this type of system is in place, you can also make statements available to your call center representatives for those patients who prefer to call in to ask questions and make payments. If your call center representatives can electronically view the same statement the patient is calling about, they are more likely to achieve resolution with a single call and contribute to faster payment.
In most instances, these technological enhancements can be accomplished with minimal technological resources and result in significant long term cost savings. Many large healthcare providers already have some sort of portal and this billing tool is simply an extension of that portal. These tools together build an “electronic fence” around your patients. A patient portal that has a history of patient statements and payment information online is a valuable resource, and all things being equal, encourages patients to remain with your organization.
Improving patient satisfaction improves patient loyalty. It is less expensive to keep your patients than compete for them later. Satisfied patients are likely to have better medical outcomes. And satisfied patients are more likely to seek medical treatment, leading to an increase in utilization of your services. On the flip side, dissatisfied patients can damage your reputation through negative word of mouth, which is difficult to control and in the internet age, can quickly spiral out of control. The good news is that taking action to improve post-visit patient experience is good for patients as well as the financial success of the healthcare provider.
