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In today’s medical environment, most medical providers should focus their resources on developing and maintaining patient satisfaction. If a provider’s service satisfies a patient, the provider is better able to nurture the loyalty of that patient. A loyal patient develops a trusting rapport with the provider and is more receptive to actively participate in a prescribed course of treatment. Patients that adhere to prescribed treatment plans are more apt to achieve positive treatment results. Medical providers that capitalize on establishing loyal patients are more inclined to realize practice growth and financial success. It would be foolish for medical providers to ignore the importance of establishing patient loyalty. Patient loyalty is maintained by assuring the patients are satisfied. This maintenance process involves more than meeting performance expectations. The medical provider must also strive to ensure that patient interactions are positive experiences. A negative experience can often cause a patient to perceive a small inconvenience as a major event. A patient’s displeasure can quickly induce stress and incite their tempers. Not only has a negative confrontation evolved, but also the opportunity to maintain the loyalty allegiance of an existing patient, could vanish forever. A medical provider’s distinguished reputation and public perception can become tainted and difficult to restore. A potential minefield is always present between patients and practice staff on a daily basis. Medical providers must acknowledge the existence of potential minefields and take appropriate actions necessary to diffuse their explosive potential. Normally, a proactive approach is the best line of defense. A proactive approach entails developing a "Customer Wellness" program – basically the medical practice meeting the needs and expectations of its patients and maintaining their satisfaction loyalty through induced support activities. "Customer Wellness" programs focus on establishing environments that are conducive to providing positive experiences between patients and practice staff. "Customer Wellness" is an ongoing process and requires a total commitment by medical providers, management and staff. A "Customer Wellness" program is based on management support, continuous training, follow-up feedback and reward. Management support is probably the most important ingredient in a "Customer Wellness" program. Management is responsible for providing and allocating the resources necessary for a program to exist and achieve success. Success cannot be optimized unless management values the program’s philosophy and allows these management values and beliefs to permeate down to staff members. A "Customer Wellness" program must complement and contribute to the company’s short and long term objectives and will require development of performance parameters, parameter monitoring and parameter revisions. Continuous training can include a multitude of activities. Training may include Courtesy Management, Role-playing, Policy & Procedure Development, Coaching, Task Integration and Development. Courtesy Management utilizes four elements which, when implemented, can establish a proactive environment that is more conducive towards producing positive experiences between patients and practice staff. The four elements are as follows: Listening Skills, Communication Skills, Behavior Awareness, and Teamwork. Role-playing involves specific scenarios that have positive or negative effects on operation objectives, patient commitments or staff performance. Staff members are utilized as actors and a script is provided to best emulate an authentic occurrence or situation. The purpose of role-playing is to allow the audience to observe and critique the recreated occurrence or situation and to learn from the presentation. Role-playing can often depict a "right way" and a "wrong way" of performing a task, duty, or interaction with another person or party. People become more aware of their actions when they are able to relate their experiences to the situation or scenario in a role-playing exercise. Corrected behaviors and performance adjustments become more prevalent as positive peer pressures and peer guidance infiltrate throughout the medical practice. Policies & Procedures help develop and establish a quasi-controlled environment. A quasi-controlled environment consists of deliberate practice guidelines and protocols, practice laws, if you like. They define the practice’s rules and regulations and dictate anticipated behavior and performance from staff. It is staff conformity that produces operation continuity. Operation continuity reduces error liabilities and promotes performance consistencies. The medical practice does not become immune to external intervention, but does maintain more control of its internal resources within its operation. A quasi-controlled environment evolves. Coaching is a mentoring concept, whereby a person or small group is instructed and encouraged to further develop their personal and professional skills. Coaching employs the "one-on-one" approach to better convey and monitor the person’s development. Coaching provides experience and expertise support and is most effective when the person accepts critiques and corrective guidance. Coaching can be a wonderful support mechanism for management and staff members. Task Integration and Development entails training staff members as to how the practice operation is assembled and the specific tasks and duties that are performed throughout the practice. Often times, a staff member is not fully aware of how their assigned tasks impact or affect other staff members located in another department. Few employees are ever well versed in the total operation, but just their own section or department. Task integration involves educating staff on the whole operation and fielding suggestions as to what modifications could best accomplish efficiency and effectiveness objectives. Duplicate and unnecessary services can be reduced while intra- and inter-department communications can be enhanced. Follow-up feedback is the conduit by which patient satisfaction is monitored and measured and can be gathered via a variety of communication modalities. Some examples are questionnaires, suggestion boxes and direct phone calls. A medical practice that conveys a concern for its patients’ satisfaction will best establish a reporting modality that is not predicated on negative actions or repercussions, but rather positive interventions. Follow-up feedback is utilized to identify areas of strength and weakness and should be disseminated throughout the practice as an assistance tool, not as executioner. Follow-up feedback is constructive criticism and is vital for a medical practice to stay informed of its successes or failures when delivering a professional service. Reward is a motivator. Rewards encourage program participation and success. Medical providers are rewarded with increased patient enrollments and practice profits. The practice staff should be rewarded as well. Is the success of the medical practice not a team or total effort? Reward methods must be determined and developed according to practice objectives and performance parameters. Remember, a reward program directly contributes towards achieving practice objectives. A medical practice’s commitment towards satisfying its patients’ needs and their expectations requires more than just "lip service". "Lip service" may create an illusory action plan, but never an actual plan. Medical practices that go beyond "lip service" and actually develop and implement a "Customer Wellness" program are much more susceptible to achieving growth and financial success. It would be foolish for a medical practice to ignore the importance of establishing patient loyalty for its professional services! To learn how we may assist you, contact The Burda Group .
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