10 Strategies for Improving Patient Experience
How does personalized medication tie into improving patient experience?
In a recent article, 70% of Patients Believe Their Doctors Lack Empathy, we focussed on the relationship between doctors and their patients and how that relationship feels to many patients to be drifting even further apart.
Unfortunately, despite the pharmaceutical industry advancing in leaps and bounds, in part thanks to technology such as 3D screen printing of medical pharmaceuticals and advanced patented generics, patients feel less connected to their healthcare providers than ever before.
The Ever-Evolving Patient-Doctor Relationship
A study that was recently conducted by The Orsini Way took a closer look at the relationship between doctors and their patients. The study discovered that more than 70% of people surveyed felt as if their doctor or medical professional lacked compassion and empathy. Furthermore, 73% of people surveyed felt as if they had been rushed through their medical consultation.
It's not great. If you applied those statistics to any other business, and at the end of the day, doctors are businesses that are providing services, with that rate of dissatisfied customers, the business wouldn't last long.
Would you eat at a restaurant where 70% of people said they weren't happy with their customer service? Or where 73% of people felt as if they'd been rushed through their meal? Probably not.
So, what's the solution?
Ten Strategies for Improving Patient Experience
10 tips for improving patient experiences when consulting with a medical professional:
Evaluate the current operational patient flow from arrival to departure. Are there any ways to streamline this process to prevent delays or reduce waiting times?
Deliver caring and compassionate communication, including greeting the patient by name, introducing yourself and your role, apologizing for the wait if required, beginning the conversation with something non-medical, and acknowledging their concerns.
Always sit and never appear rushed or ready to run out of the office to see the next patient.
Listen to the patient's concerns without interruption if possible. You can always take notes of any concerns and refer back to them once they finish speaking.
Recognize that the patient may be familiar with aspects of the treatment plan.
Inform them of how long the evaluation will take and what's involved. Overestimate, under-promise, and over-deliver.
Always keep the patient informed of any delays.
Ensure the patient understands the treatment plan.
Let the patient know you're available if they have any follow-up questions and the best way to contact you.
Speak with your staff and ensure that they're happy and if they have any suggestions to improve the process.
How Could Personalized Medication Improve Patient Experience?
One of the new frontiers of pharmaceuticals is personalized medication. We spoke in-depth in our blog Individualized and Customized Medicine’s Important Role in the Future of Healthcare.
Imagine, instead of getting a prescription medication that treats one condition but causes you to experience other negative side effects, you could get a customized version of the same drug.
You would get all the benefits without the negative side effects.
It’s just one way that pharmaceutical advancements could lead to better patient experiences.
Ultimately, doctors that have better relationships with patients achieve better outcomes, ensure a better patient-doctor relationship, and ultimately improve the patient’s experience.
Laxxon Medical is dedicated to engineering patented 3D pharmaceutical solutions which optimize products and benefit patients. Our goal is to establish SPID®-Technology as a manufacturing process that has the individual and the pharmaceutical partner in mind.
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