Improving the Patient Experience with Efficient Patient Flow
Patient loyalty in healthcare looks a lot different today. In a changing digital environment, the patient journey has moved beyond your brick-and-mortar building and towards online platforms.
As a result, building patient loyalty involves more than the physical visit itself. Patients’ lives are fully immersed in technology, and they have unlimited access to providers everywhere—providers just like you. In one click, patients can determine whether your practice is worth their time. They can also let other patients know about their experiences just as easily.
Moreover, with younger generations’ shifting values and interests, brand loyalty looks a lot different today. Now, consumers have more options than they could ever count, so they look for brands that relate to them. For example, businesses that align with these generations’ values are more likely to see dollars from young supporters. Other businesses that are either neutral or have competing views may have a more difficult time.
Your practice can take a values-driven approach, but it’s also helpful to look into your operations and patient engagement. The fundamental reason patients of all ages come to your practice is because they’re in need of your care. But if the process contains gaps, it’s unlikely you’ll build a base of loyal patients.
Not sure where to begin? Here’s how PatientTrak can help your healthcare practice build brand loyalty by filling in your patient cycle’s gaps.
Magnetic 5-Star Reviews
Before smartphones, Google, and social media, patients showed up to your practice and experienced your services entirely firsthand. Today, however, it’s hard to imagine someone completely untouched, unmoved, or unmotivated by what others say online. This is especially true for your patients, since more than 94% reference Google reviews before paying you a visit.
Word of mouth and referrals from friends and family remain effective. However, today’s patients turn to a broader audience to seek opinions about their care. Like a moth to a flame, patients are attracted to online reviews. Having as many reviews as possible will place you on their radar.
It’s also important to note that Google ranks businesses depending on the quality and quantity of their reviews. These factors determine whether they sit on the first page of search results. You likely already considered ratings as beneficial to your healthcare practice’s growth. But now they’re critical to its overall health.
How to Manage Feedback
Now that you know that reviews are critical to your practice’s health, it’s time you start paying attention to them. With a system like PatientTrak, your practice can improve its entire approach to the review process:
- Send real-time surveys to gather feedback and collect more reviews for Google.
- An intuitive dashboard allows your practice to take control of reviews. Receive instant alerts for negative feedback, quickly respond, and review reports to make improvements.
- Manage listings to unify important information about your practice across all major listing sites and directories.
With software that supports review management, it’s easier to maintain your reputation and get a higher volume of positive ratings. Today, that can go a long way towards growth. It also matters in terms your healthcare practice’s patient loyalty. When you establish your practice as a reputable and popular business, you’ll become a reliable source that today’s patients trust.
Seamless Patient Flow
How you handle the patients in your practice is just as significant because it ultimately determines your reviews. For this reason, it’s important to tighten up operations and do everything you can to minimize inconveniences. Long wait times negatively impact the patient experience. Causing them to wait longer than necessary for care isn’t how you get them to return.
How to Optimize Patient Flow
There are a few ways you can mitigate the interruptions contributing to poor patient flow. With PatientTrak, you gain end-to-end visibility into patients’ visits:
- Pre-visit scheduling with wait times takes patients’ time into consideration and allows them to conveniently book appointments ahead of time.
- Arrival kiosks & QR codes make the check-in process faster and easier.
- A virtual waiting room streamlines arrivals and allows you to text patients when you’re ready to see them.
- Patient tracking from door to discharge allows you to monitor reception flow and identify bottlenecks.
With fewer interruptions and inefficiencies, patients won’t dread coming to your office. In fact, they’ll be more likely to come back and see you again.
High CMS Star Ratings
Along with the 5-star reviews you get on Google, your practice depends on CMS Star Ratings. Every year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) publishes Star Ratings. They’re determined by the quality of services received by those enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) and Prescription Drug Plans (PDP). These ratings empower Medicare consumers to decide which provider will provide the best care.
For example, hospitals receive their stars (which are assigned 1 to 5) based on five key factors:
- Mortality rate
- Safety of care
- Readmission
- Patient experience
- Timeliness and effectiveness of care
To patients, these factors signal whether you’re running a quality healthcare practice that they’ll be . And the higher your star rating, the more likely patients are to return for a safer, faster, and easier visit.
How to Increase CMS Stars
Altogether, getting more CMS stars requires you to run a tight ship. This means you need proper safety measures, well-trained staff, transparent communication, and streamlined operations.
With PatientTrak, the tools that optimize patient flow—like scheduling and a virtual waiting room—help you time appointments and make your office more efficient. But equally importantly, PatientTrak allows you to engage with patients to better communicate with them about their care:
- Appointment reminders reduce missed appointments by 90%, and they ensure patients stay on track with their treatment.
- Two-way texting reaches patients where they’re most likely to respond, providing them with quick answers and valuable resources.
- Broadcast messaging makes it easier to deliver important announcements, educational content. It also lets you contact patients you may not have seen for a while.
The benefits of instant, easily accessible communication with patients are manifold. Your patients are more likely to adhere to their treatments. They’ll also perceive their care as higher quality—because it is. Their treatment is more consistent, and they’re more informed about it. And with better care, your CMS Star Ratings (and your Google reviews) will continue to climb.
Establish Patient Loyalty with PatientTrak
Patients today have an abundance of options when it comes to selecting a care provider. Now, they reference online reviews that either rave about positive experiences or express guilt for going in the first place. Consequently, building brand loyalty can be difficult in this competitive environment, in which patients are surrounded by providers and swayed by public opinion.
To keep patients coming back, you need to establish a proven track record. Collecting more positive Google reviews, enhancing your patient flow, and engaging with patients throughout the process is the best way to build a reputable practice and gain loyalty.
PatientTrak’s essential tools allow your practice to establish itself and become renowned for providing excellent care. With PatientTrak, building patient loyalty in your healthcare practice is easier. You have everything you need to attract and retain modern patients, allowing you to grow and sustain your business for even more generations to come.
