Patient Feedback: Your Key to a Better Healthcare Experience

January 26, 2023

In today’s healthcare climate, patient feedback is more important now than ever before. Healthcare organizations are working actively to remain resilient and competitive after the instability that COVID-19 brought to both staff structures and patient processes – and feedback is one of the best ways to drive true data-driven change and attain a better patient experience.

This concept has been quantitatively proven across the industry. SoftwareAdvice found that positive review histories can bring up to a 43% growth rate of out-of-network patients, resulting in higher positive revenue gain. They also found that 77% of people use online reviews as one of their first steps in finding a new physician.

In short, building processes to harvest, analyze, and leverage patient feedback ought to be a top priority in 2022. Below, we’re exploring how you can get vital patient feedback across your practice, and the benefits you can gain from collecting it across the clinical and financial touch points as they move through the treatment pathway.

How can practices effectively collect patient feedback?

Patients may feel more comfortable providing feedback across different channels. That’s why we recommend a holistic strategy whenever possible. Below, we’ve listed a few steps to help you get started on strategically collecting and using patient feedback.

• Map out the patient journey: Consider mapping out every interaction you have with your patients: From their first experience with you to the final billing process. This will empower you to find new opportunities to harvest or initiate a feedback opportunity, and can help you to get the most possible benefit over the extent of a customer’s lifetime.
• Determine how you’ll ask: As you go through this process, make it as user-friendly as possible. Consider tools such as portal pop-ups, text messages, or phone calls – as well as email surveys or platform-based tools.
• Build into organizational goals: Incentivizing the feedback process can help your team members efforts be much more effective. By building in the collection and analyzation of feedback into your practice’s annual goals, team members will be more prone to speak to your patients and encourage them to share their opinions.

What are the benefits of patient feedback?

Patient feedback is critical to helping you identify the current gaps and needs in your organization. It also gives your patients another opportunity to engage with the practice outside of the clinical setting, which may reinforce their loyalty or positive feelings about the experiences as they continue to feel “heard.” You can use this data to enhance your financial and operational strategy more effectively, saving ample time and cost as you go through the refinement and optimization process.

Enhance your revenue cycle management steps with Zotec Zotec is here to connect practitioners with the tools and strategies they need to manage their RCM experience. Our team of experts has created industry-leading technology to help healthcare organizations enhance their revenue intake processes by creating custom patient experiences – done seamlessly with our proprietary Patient Bill Care Solutions. Ready to experience the difference? Connect with us today to learn more about our innovative solutions for your RCM needs.