A Needle of Service

Many didn't like nurses when they were kids because of syringes.

I suspect that most of the audience reading this article at this very moment have visited a healthcare facility at some point within the last 1 year. I hail the superhumans who haven't. For those who have, would you recommend the health facility you visited to another?

Patient satisfaction speaks to the 'the fulfillment of patients’ needs, desires, or expectations in relation to a healthcare service' (Afrashtehfar et al, 2020). Every hospital has multiple touchpoints that impact patient satisfaction. Notable touchpoints include staff attitude, availability of doctors, wait time, treatment quality, and ambiance. What do you reckon is the average experience of a Nigerian at a hospital?

Aunty Me First!

Let's start with me. I visited a hospital in Port Harcourt in Q3 2023. After waiting for over 3 hours to see a doctor, unacknowledged by staff, I had to be sure that I hadn't been forgotten. So, I followed the patient who was next in line to see the doctor. Here's a close dialogue of what ensued between me and the doctor.

Me: 'I have been waiting for hours. Could you let me know if I'm on the list you'll see?"

Doctor: 'Do I look like I have been playing?'

Me (Beginning to get infuriated): 'Can you tell me if my file is on your desk?'

Doctor: 'Go and ask the receptionist.'

Me: '######*******??????"

You get the gist. Lol. But seriously, two major drivers of dissatisfaction were encountered that day: 1. Long wait time. 2. Unprofessional medical doctor. I certainly won't recommend that hospital to anyone else.

Research Speaks

An independent study was ran on over 1000 private hospitals across different states in Nigeria to identify the Net Promoter Score (NPS) of each hospital as well as their Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT) for 5 key customer touchpoints.

Net promoter score is a metric used to determine the likelihood of a person to refer a brand (in this case a hospital) to a friend, family, or colleague. It is calculated by subtracting the percentage of promoters (people likely to recommend) from the percentage of detractors (people unlikely to recommend). Ideally, a good net promoter score is a score that is above 0. Which means that there are more promoters than detractors. Findings revealed that no less than 30% of the hospitals had an NPS of 0 or less. That is a lot of healthcare providers unlikely to be recommended by most of the patients who use them.

Sighs.

CSAT on the other hand is calculated by summing up the satisfied ratings and dividing by the total responses. A CSAT of 75% is considered a good score. Wait time, no surprise there, recorded the lowest overall satisfaction score of 64%. Hospitals are notorious for directly or indirectly keeping people waiting. Perceived quality of medication prescribed also fell short of a good CSAT score by a point.

Hospitals Assemble!

It's time!

Amporfro et al, 2021 states 'Poor quality healthcare can result in loss of patient lives, revenue, time and resources, trust and respect, community apathy and negative hospital reputation'. 'Oga' has said it all. Many healthcare providers appear to have separated customer experience from business success. It's like they believe that people will visit whether they like them or not...as long as they don't lose their lives. It is a crayfish's condition to be bent, right? (BTW this is much sweeter in pidgin English) A patient will continue to use a provider even if they only receive a needle of service, right? I implore those who think this way to find out their customer retention rates as well as their profitability.

Hospitals must redesign what it truly means to render great patient experiences and start delighting patients. This is probably one of the sectors that require the best customer experience delivery. We already have a couple who are doing great. I recommend healthcare facilities begin by mapping out the areas of their businesses that impact the satisfaction of their patients, establish their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as they relate to patient experience...and start making deliberate, sustainable and measurable changes.

Remember: Patients who visit hospitals are already anxious. Don't make it worse by administering buckets of bad customer service. Always a pleasure to hear from service experts like Dapo Fajimi , Mazen Moustafa , Olusegun Omoloye, CCEP onome deBBie akwara , Omowunmi Faizal, CCEM , Nnaemeka McDavid- Bishop, CCEM, PMP? , Ugochi Nwosu , Bakare Abimbola cpm,cbap and others.

Have a great week ahead.