Three things you should never hear from your patients – and how to adapt when you do
Do you know the warning signs of crumbling patient loyalty? With 47% of consumers reporting that they are not “highly loyal” to their current PCP and may switch providers in the next 12 months, it’s clear that patient loyalty is fragile1. Why? Often, the problem comes down to poor patient experience. So many healthcare providers are focused on quantifiable goals of population health improvements and cost cutting that the actual patient experience gets put on the back burner. Patients have noticed, and they are shopping around for better options. If you care about promoting patient loyalty, you’ve got to look out for these three phrases and know how to adapt in response.
“I feel more like a number than a person.”
Healthcare, of all things, shouldn’t feel like a trip to the DMV. But when providers limit their view of a patient to electronic health records (EHRs), it’s no wonder patients are frustrated. They want to be treated like human beings, not just sets of symptoms.
It’s time to make your healthcare more human by going beyond clinical data. When care teams can incorporate personal preferences, goals, lifestyle habits, and more into their knowledge of the patient, they can create more personalized and holistic care plans. Suddenly, doctors know that they’re working with a patient who has a goal of running a 10k, wants to avoid prescription medications, and only has transportation to a clinic available on weekdays. You can bet that if a patient’s doctors have this knowledge and personalize her care accordingly, it will go a long way in making her feel valued – and in improving the quality of her care.
“I’m constantly repeating myself to new doctors.”
Patients often find themselves in the care of multiple doctors – not to mention nurses, home care providers, and family members. If the job of coordinating between these different providers is left in your patient’s hands, don’t be surprised when they start looking for the door. Repeating the same information for each new appointment is a headache for patients. Worse, when information slips through the cracks, the consequences can be dire: communication failures between providers contribute to nearly 40% of severe medical errors2.
Patients shouldn’t have to worry about whether their physicians are in sync with one another – which means that effective care coordination should be a top priority for healthcare providers. When physicians can collaborate seamlessly, patients don’t have to shoulder the burden of coordinating their care and can get the peace of mind they deserve.
“It’s such a hassle to talk to my doctor.”
The last thing a sick patient wants to do is drag herself through traffic to a busy doctor’s office. It’s no surprise that six of the top ten decision drivers when choosing a primary care physician are related to access and convenience1. And the harder it is for a patient to access her doctor, the less likely she is to communicate vital information. A little bit of convenience goes a long way – both in satisfying patients, and encouraging communication – but healthcare providers are dropping the ball.
Today, telemedicine and other home technologies mean that a patient’s doctor can be as close as a patient’s own laptop, phone, or smartwatch. Home health technologies (such as telemedicine and wearables) will be used by 78 million consumers in 2020 – up from 14 million in 20143, and one out of five consumers report that they would pay more for the ability to see a doctor virtually4. This rising consumer demand is both an opportunity and a mandate for healthcare providers: if you care about patient loyalty, now is the time to provide multimodal access to physicians.
When a patient can seek the input of a faraway specialist on a video call, or open a chat window with a nurse to clarify medication instructions, she’ll be both happier and more communicative. When care providers can check in with patients over email, or see inputs from a patient’s wearable activity tracker or blood pressure monitor, they can get the real-time feedback they need to optimize a patient’s care, as well as catch symptoms before they lead to a bigger problem.
Get started today
If you’re ready to win patients’ loyalty, start with the Tribridge Health360 Care Coordination solution built on Microsoft cloud technology. Care Coordination is a proactive care management solution that provides a unified environment for all patient data. It enables care teams to create personalized care plans by integrating EHRs with unstructured personal information. It promotes care team communication throughout the treatment process, allowing physicians to collaboratively build, edit, and update a patient’s plan in real time. And it serves as a central platform through which care providers and patients can interact – over video chat, through email, or by sharing data from wearables.
Learn more about how Care Coordination can revolutionize the quality and experience of your patients’ care, and try the preview now on the AppSource marketplace.
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1Advisory Board, 2016
2CRICO Strategy, 2015
3Tractica, 2015
4Accenture, 2015
