While a healthcare facility’s chief concern is providing quality medical care, a patient’s guest experience extends beyond purely medical concerns. Patient satisfaction is directly impacted by the ability of providers to give the highest quality of care, both of which affect the reputation of your healthcare facility as a place to seek treatment and employment.
A visit to a healthcare facility can be a very stressful experience for patients and their families, so anything you can do to make their experience easier will speak volumes. Approaching healthcare from a hospitality and medical perspective can help improve patient satisfaction.
One area where healthcare facilities are learning from the hospitality industry is implementing communications applications to enhance the efficiency and delivery of care. Here are three ways unified healthcare communications, adapted from the hospitality industry, can improve the experiences of both patients and staff at your organization while increasing the satisfaction and efficacy of your teams.
1. Integrated Communications
Patients will interact with many applications and systems throughout their treatment, from admission to discharge. A unified communications solution gives providers actionable insights into all aspects of a patient’s care, allowing them to easily forecast, schedule, and adhere to tasks to achieve service-level goals. Mobile applications enable healthcare workers to do all this on the go, from anywhere in the facility, for maximum efficiency.
Integration with other systems optimizes these advantages and makes it easier to keep track of critical patient information. Implementing a secure, scalable, and interoperable communications solution that integrates seamlessly with your other healthcare applications and billing systems creates efficient workflows. Staff have immediate access to comprehensive, up-to-date patient data. You have a clear picture of the entire patient journey and can be confident that nothing is slipping through the cracks. Patients receive timely, higher-quality care from the moment they’re admitted through a streamlined check-out process.
2. Workflow Management
In healthcare, as in hospitality, efficiency is key. Wait times for procedures or bed turns can take a patient’s stay from a healing experience to a frustrating one. To improve efficiency, look for a workflow management solution to accelerate tickets to the right person the first time.
For example, suppose a patient needs to be transferred from one room to another for treatment but requires the assistance of a porter. In that case, a mobile-friendly workflow management tool lets you send a notification directly to the porter’s mobile device, ensuring a rapid response. This notification system can effectively route surgical or emergency staff where needed most.
The healthcare industry places a higher value on the experience than ever before. With these applications in place, your healthcare facility is primed to enhance patient satisfaction.
3. Improved Staff Experience
A good employee experience greatly enhances the patient experience. Healthcare workers feel more overworked than ever, but operational excellence can help mitigate employee burnout and compensate for staff shortages.
With a strong focus on work/life balance for healthcare staff, the right solution enables management to provide attractive scheduling options, giving employees the flexibility they want. Advanced tools match staff with patient needs, manage shifts, and prevent overscheduling to reduce burnout and improve satisfaction.
Integrated communications solutions automate repetitive tasks like tracking medication refills or sending appointment reminders, letting providers focus on meaningful interactions. HIPAA-compliant communications systems also allow clinicians easy and secure access to the correct data and insights to enhance their efficiency of care, so they spend less time poring through records and more time treating patients.
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