Customer Service Advantages

“Patient satisfaction is undoubtedly on the minds of hospital administrators in an increasingly consumer-driven healthcare system. With patient

The health care industry is an environment that is competitive and expensive. To be a patient receiving care the urgency is high and at a very critical point to trust a team of strangers with your care possibly even your life. On the other side of that coin, treating and interacting with patients is a part of the health care industry because providing care does not end with the physician. In the middle of these two different side of health care is where management steps in and takes over the middle ground.

Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation. Good customer service is

Quality patient centered care is vital to a hospital or clinic’s ability to treat whole patients. Dabney and Tzeng (2013) address the necessity to implement patient-centered care into clinic and hospital settings. The article clarifies what patient-centered care and service quality is by consolidating many works and sighting benefits medical professionals can observe in their practice.

This is especially important in the healthcare system because all service should start with a smile. One should exhibit customer service in the healthcare system by demonstrating common courtesy, creating or controlling the proper environment, and even becoming the patient in order to best serve and understand their needs no matter the circumstance or presuming attitude. Customer service is just as important as the treatment process and both should be shown in a professional, pleasant, and responsible manner. The better the customer service, the more customer satisfaction, which retains patients and can also contribute to their health and attitude.

Identifying your customer base, uncovering their needs, what issues they may have, and what’s important to them, helps to streamline your processes. Let’s play out a scenario: Sally is a single mother of 3 with no insurance because her employer doesn’t offer a plan. Sally just received her billing statement. By taking a moment to identify Sally’s needs you are able to find out she is able to pay her bill, but may need to set-up a payment plan. Working with your patient to resolve an issue rather than not taking the time to listen to their needs will boost patient satisfaction through the roof. And by offering solutions tailored to that specific customer, you are also improving your customer service efficiency. Streamlining employees time and cutting overhead.

Throughout the United States, patient satisfaction has become increasingly significant in the quality of healthcare that is delivered to patients (Bleich, Özaltin, & Murray, 2009). The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey is one national survey that has become more widely used in hospitals that measures patients’ perspectives of hospital care today (CMS, 2015). There are two

The purpose of this paper is to provide future healthcare administrators with the comprehensive understanding of patient’s perception in real health care setting. It is important to understand your customers and their point of views regarding their experiences in the current healthcare system. Understanding your patients will help you not only to provide efficient quality care but also to exceed customers expectations. I chose to share Patient A’s experience because she was first referred to a medical oncologist by her primary care doctor. She underwent bilateral mastectomy and ongoing radiation therapy. Patient A was in Hospital A for three days and was discharged afterwards. Patient A dealt with wide range of health care professionals,

More times than not, a surgical patient will not know the cost for the procedure before undergoing the operation. With all the possible variables involved, the providers most likely do not know the associated costs either. Even if cost were available, providers do not want to use the Wal-Mart strategy of being the low cost leader. People associate lower cost with lower quality of care. Since cost of care is not a marketable factor, other areas become overstated including the satisfaction of the patients. It is healthcare provider’s obligation to ensure the patient is satisfied or market share will be compromised. There are many variables to patient satisfaction, but research has shown a direct correlation between high patient satisfaction levels and a highly engaged staff.

This includes the setting, process and professionals who deliver health care services to patients. The service that is provided is multifaceted to include location, professionalism and standards of care, patient flow, and communication between providers, staff and patients. The service aspect of the triad also includes the perception of satisfaction for all consumers of health care, including the providers, patients and the health care organization (Cowing, Davino-Ramaya, Ramaya, & Szmerekovsky, 2009).

Michael’s work depends on the nurses to make a difference in patient quality care, and patient satisfaction by holding true to the hospital’s mission statement. Providing patients and their families with an exceptional care, respect, confidentiality, and acknowledging the dignity and individuality of every patients, staff members, and communicating openly and effectively with patients and staff are some of the values that guide the organization in pursuit of its mission. The patience experience model at Lenox Hill Hospital places the patient first, and at the center of every decision-making. Patient experience is more than patient satisfaction. A few articles provide a definition of patient experience and also cautioned against equating it with satisfaction. Shale believes that patient experience is a clinical quality indicator; however cautioned paralleling patient experience with satisfaction. She explains, "there is a complex relationship between patient knowledge, patient expectations of care, patient experiences of care, patient assessment of care, and objective measures of patient benefit"(p287). She postulates there are three dimensions or domains of patient experience including the physiologic illness experience (rash, bleeding, etc.), customer service (not satisfaction) and the lived experience of the illness (coping/dealing with the condition) (Wolf et al. 2014). Patient experience is aligned with the patient centered care model.

In value-based care, the performance of a health facility is pegged at the level of satisfaction of the patient. According to the record, there has been a deteriorating patient experience, it shows a decline from 73% to 69% excellent experience. However, there has been no rise in the poor experience by the patients. Patients have various needs that require addressing in a way that are not same. Nurses use their knowledge and skills coupled with experience, intuition, and creativity to ensure customer satisfaction. While delivering care, nurses should act in the best interest for patients’ maximum comfort. Some of the crucial outcome measures include a desirable work environment, healthy and efficient communication, patient-physician relationship, and the patients waiting

Customer services is a very important part of managing ongoing client/patient relationships, because they are the key to bringing in revenue. The concept of customer service is to deliver outstanding services so the customers will have a great experience. I currently work in the healthcare industry and the company that I work for is starting to have trainings and meetings to improve customer service to our clients to help increase our patient satisfaction levels. There are some employees who strive to help the patient by going far and beyond their line of duties, and as others are burned out and feel like they just need to get the patient in and out without really understanding the patient’s needs or

The call centre of the Eastern Medical Faculty Foundation, hereafter referred to as EMFF, provides a competitive advantage to the Internal Medicine Department of the Chicago School of Medicine through the delivery of efficient and high quality service to patients. Treating patients generates revenue the Internal Medicine Department and contributes to investments in research in the highly competitive healthcare sector. Unfortunately, declining customer satisfaction, as evidenced in a growing number of customer complaints, suggests the quality of service is deteriorating and threatens the very competitive advantage of the EMFF.

Too often excellent customer service is seen as just doing whatever the customer asks. It isn 't. And that 's not realistic. You won’t always be able to give your customers everything they want whenever they want it. Other books you’ll read will tell you to just do it, give the customer what they want, just make it happen, whatever it is. That’s not realistic. You know it and I know it. Just because you can’t do it, or because something won’t happen right away it doesn’t excuse you continuing to build the customer service experience. Even in those moments when the customer is on hold, or when they’re waiting for what is being worked on, customer service is still happening. And keeping your customers up-to-date on the events taking place is critical to ensuring that an exceptional experience happens even when customers can’t get instant service.