7 Things Your Hospital Can Do to Improve Patient Experience

1. Explain If They Have to Wait for Their Long Visits

Patients hate to wait that’s for sure. They want to come at an appropriate time so that they can be treated immediately because the sick can be very stubborn at times. Long waits have been the top complaints about patients for a very long time. However, your organization must not encourage prolonged waits but sometimes a situation may arise which can cause the delays. You must explain these delays even if they are of your free RIS system. Explaining these wait times and telling how long it would take will actually make the patients feel more at ease rather than causing a ruckus.

2. Talk with the Patient

Patients are much impressed and appreciate with doctors who are caring and have a sense of compassion within themselves. Talk with the patients before and after their surgery and give them courage and shower them with hopeful and positive words. During their time at the hospital, you can also sit with them on the bed and chat with them asking how they are doing and what they will do after the treatment. This has a more positive impact on the patient’s experience in the hospital.

3. Train Your Employees to Handle Complaints

Complaints will remain constant, but you should take it positively and strive in improving that specific department of error. How you or your staff handle these complains have a crucial impact on how the objector reacts. You need to train and educate your staff in handling these situations in a friendly and cool manner.

4. Manage the Appointments Professionally

Managing appointments is a basic concern for many hospitals. You can definitely take the help of technology in this department. There are a lot of appointment management tools you can get and assign a staff member to maintain the appointments. You must know the peak hours and make sure the patients are appointed in a proper way that avoids the crowd. You can also add a SMS notification system to remind the patients a day prior to their appointments so that they don’t forget or get late which can mess up the appointment schedule. Good appointment management always makes a patient’s experience smooth in a hospital.

5. Make Sure to Apologize for Any Inconvenience

The word “sorry” isn’t so hard to say and your staff should know to use it more frequently. Any inconvenience whether irrational must be followed up by an apology with empathy. You must not be defensive and try to blame the patient. Instead, you join their side and admit the mistake regardless of whoever’s fault it is. It is a great way for making patients think they are in control and a way to improve the overall experience for them.

6. Take Action on the Feedback

You must take feedback from the patients in order to record their experience and get their comments. This can be done in the form of the survey form, online ratings etc. Just make sure that you act upon the given feedback where the complaint may be from the customers to improve the quality of services for the future.

7. Better RIS System

No patient would like to wait hours for their reports or to explain medical report to each doctors or professional in the hospital. That’s why a reliable free RIS system is recommended. There are some free RIS system as well as DICOM PACS software out there from which you can choose the best for your needs.