For retail companies and service providers, obtaining customer feedback has long been common practice – they focus on their customers and constantly improve their products and services. Slowly, this methodology is also establishing itself in the health sector. Learn how to easily implement patient feedback in healthcare.
A patient wakes up in the morning with pain in the ear – he types in the Google search query ENT doctor, within a few seconds the doctors near him are displayed. In addition to the name and address, yellow stars shine – the doctor's office has already been rated by other patients. From "The best doctor in the world" to "Horrible practice, I had to wait for hours" is usually all in the reviews. However, it is noticeable that only exceptionally good or very dissatisfied patients write the evaluation. The truth? It is often somewhere in the middle.
Most doctors' offices don't have the time or personnel resources to respond to Google reviews, but they also know that it is becoming increasingly important to provide patients with a positive experience. To find out what patients really think about treatment, patient feedback programs are a good idea.
Fast, honest, actionable
In order to obtain patient feedback, the technologies that have been used for decades in other industries are suitable: Using QR codes, customers can rate their experience in the restaurant or in the store. Now, more and more medical practices and healthcare facilities are discovering these methods for themselves – because they can be implemented quickly, provide honest insights and the results can be quickly translated into actionable measures.
When a healthcare institution decides to set up a patient feedback program, experts from the market research department create a suitable questionnaire that is perfectly tailored to the needs and yet can be answered quickly. In the next step, patients are made aware of the program, they fill out the questionnaire and the results are visible in real time in an online dashboard. In this way, those responsible can see at a glance what is going well and where there is still room for improvement.
Practical examples show that the possibilities for improvement are often very obvious and can be implemented quickly: In a practice with longer waiting times, patients did not rate the waiting time negatively per se, but it turned out that they would like something to drink during the waiting time – a water dispenser in the waiting room solved this problem and increased satisfaction.
By the way, a patient feedback program reduces bad Google reviews, since negative feedback can be reported directly via the questionnaire and very few patients bother to write a negative review on the Internet after being able to give their feedback elsewhere.
Would you like to learn more about the possibilities of a patient feedback program? Our experts will be happy to advise you!
