The Customer Service Training for Healthcare Providers will educate healthcare providers (HCP) on customer service skills to increase patient satisfaction and the number of positive patient experiences.
Patient experience refers to the types of interactions that patients have with their healthcare providers. For example, receiving assistance from a health plan and going to a doctor’s consultation all contribute to a patient’s experience.
Patient experience is an integral part of healthcare quality. It includes highly valuable components of patient care such as timely appointments, accessible information, and good communication.
What You’ll Learn
- Overview of patient experience and patient satisfaction
- Why it is important to improve patient experience
- Physician strategies to improve patient satisfaction
- Organizational strategies to improve patient satisfaction
Details
Course length: 30 minutes.
Languages: American English
Key features: Audio narration, learning activity, and post-assessment
ACCME Accreditation
American Medical Compliance is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education to physicians. Our Continuing Medical Education (CME) program is committed to enhancing the knowledge, skills, and professional performance of healthcare providers to improve patient care outcomes. Through high-quality educational activities, we aim to address the identified educational gaps and to support the continuous professional development of our medical community. American Medical Compliance designates this activity for a maximum of 0.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits. Physicians should only claim this credit for their complete participation in this activity.
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Patient Satisfaction
Patient satisfaction is used to measure the quality of healthcare in a facility. It affects clinical outcomes as well as patient retention. Additionally, low patient satisfaction can lead to increased medical malpractice claims.
Patient satisfaction depends on timely, efficient, and patient-centered healthcare. Therefore, it is an indicator of doctor and hospital success. While patient experience and patient satisfaction can be used interchangeably, they do not refer to the same concept.
Importance of Improving Patient Experience
Improving patient experience has a beneficial impact on patients and their families. Additionally, there are several clinical outcomes associated with better patient experiences. For example, more positive patient experiences are associated with better disease prevention and care measures. Patient experience can also provide insight into systemic issues within the facility, such as delays in returning results and gaps in communication. Patient experience is also related to important financial indicators. An example of this is that facilities with more positive patient experiences have lower medical malpractice risks. Therefore, it is clearly important how proper customer service techniques can greatly impact the hospital. This course discusses at length several strategies for improving patient experience.
Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction
Excellence in customer service requires three factors. Here they are in more detail:
The physician is the first factor. Physicians are responsible not only for giving the best quality of care possible to the patient, but they must also lead the team in providing excellent patient satisfaction. There are a couple of “house rules” that are crucial in satisfying a patient properly. One example is breaking the ice by making eye contact and smiling.
The next factor is the patient. The patient must feel comfortable throughout the duration of their visit.
The last factor is the organization. Excellent customer service is not just necessary for physicians. All members of the organization must display appropriate customer service when providing care to patients. There are several ways in which organizations can improve patient satisfaction. This course discusses several customer service strategies in detail.
Necessary Customer Service Requirements
One example of a necessary customer service practice is proper telephone communication services. Smart and competent individuals must be responsible for handling telephone calls.
Organizations must ensure that all staff is properly trained in customer service practices. Additionally, physician offices must maintain a professional appearance. This can be done by implementing efficient and appropriate office designs and layouts.
“Talking Points”
Talking points are scripts that ensure everyone in the organization delivers a positive and consistent message to patients. These messages express service standards and allow providers to give better care to their patients. It is extremely important that all healthcare workers become familiar with talking points to ensure proper customer service. Talking points are useful when dealing with frightened and upset patients. Scripting conveys the true message of the facility to the patients in an understandable way. It also establishes responsibility among doctors by putting words to behaviors.
Organizations set clear expectations for patient encounters when they utilize scripting. This course provides several examples of scripted communications that may be beneficial for healthcare workers. For example, it is not good customer service to tell a patient “Sorry, I don’t have time.” Instead, healthcare providers can say “I will be with you in 5 minutes. Thank you for your patience!”
Set Customer Service Standards
Organizations can set customer service standards that must be followed by all staff. This training discusses the steps for implementing these standards. For example, staff and managers should be consulted about the applicability of such standards. Additionally, hospitals should commit to ambitious customer service goals.
Furthermore, patients must also be considered when creating customer service standards. Standards can act as guidelines for specific duties and behaviors when providing healthcare. Using strategies such as scripting can be beneficial in maintaining good customer service.
