Perceived Patient Wait Time is the Real Driver for Patient Satisfaction

Health care advertising spend in the United States is now well over $10 billion dollars. The battle for patients is fierce as patients choose their provider. Managing the online presence and relationship with patients is challenging. There are two fronts in this battle… the internet and in-facility patient satisfaction and experience.

The internet has become the front door to health care facilities.

Patients go to the web to make informed decisions and their experience during their visit drives willingness to share their experience with others and give positive physician and facility reviews on the web at such sites as RateMD’s, Google and Healthgrades. Increased reviews and quality of reviews intern improves Google rankings driving patient acquisition.

The number one driver for patient satisfaction is wait times. Or more importantly perceived wait times. The top healthcare providers who recognize this are taking proactive measures to decrease perceived and real wait times. Visibility into patient flow and feedback through surveys are critical to improving patient satisfaction, increasing reimbursement and boosting positive online reviews.

Tracking the patient wait times and experience from door-to-discharge followed up with post visit surveys and online reputation management improves patient acquisition, retention and boosts positive online reviews.

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it, and you can’t improve it.

Patient engagement solutions like text messaging, kiosks and tracking boards that allow patients to see waiting times and where they are in the queue decrease perceived waiting times which is the real measure that dives satisfaction. With text messaging patients can go to the gift shop, grab a cup of coffee or walk around away from the waiting area till they are texted that their appointment is ready.

Lumin Medical, LLC offers PatientTrak a web based patient tracking platform that integrates with the EMR a sign-in Kiosk and web check in. Wait times are displayed with a waiting room display. Patient tracking gives visibility into the patient experience and flow, measuring wait times as they move through the facility during their visit. Text messaging sends status updates from staff to patients, family members and other staff.

To learn more about driving patient satisfaction, engagement and acquisition contact Bruce Webster.