What is the patient experience and why is it important for your practice?
The patient experience can make or break a medical business. Find out why it’s so important and what you can do to enhance it.
Wednesday, 30 October 2024
The patient experience (PX) is important to the success of medical practices, but what does it mean exactly? And how can you improve it?
This article includes excerpts from our eBook: ‘Enhancing the patient experience'.
Patient experience definition
The PX is the sum of all interactions a patient has with a medical practice. It encompasses every touchpoint in a patient's journey, from calling the practice and speaking to a receptionist, to visiting the practice and interacting with staff and doctors, and any follow-up correspondence they receive.
Think of the PX like customer service. The better it is, the better the business performs. On the flip side, if customer service is subpar, the business will likely suffer. As patients are at the core of your medical business, it’s important to ensure that your PX is gold standard.
What impacts the patient experience?
A positive or negative PX could be the result of many things, including:
- the efficiency of administration processes
- the resources and capabilities of practice staff
- the quality of patient communication (calls answered, ease of booking appointments)
- the professionalism of practice staff
- the accuracy of admin and reception tasks completed
- the explicit recognition of the patient’s healthcare journey and the natural sharing of empathy and care from the practice team.
How to improve the patient experience?
The PX can be influenced by the effectiveness of reception and administration staff. If staff are struggling to fulfill their duties – perhaps calls are going unanswered, or patients aren’t promptly greeted at reception – they may benefit from some support.
Avant Practice Solutions’ Virtual Administration and Reception Service (VARS) is designed to assist overwhelmed practice staff in completing administrative and reception tasks efficiently.
Our Australian-based medical receptionists can handle key tasks like:
- telephone and in-bound tasks
- appointment bookings
- patient paperwork
- database and file system management
- after-hours message recording and follow-up
- billings
- theatre list management.
Enlisting outsourced expertise like VARS can help you boost the efficiency of your practice and better support your patients.
If you’d like to learn more about the PX, download our eBook: ‘Enhancing the patient experience'. The eBook explores:
- positive vs poor patient experience: the tell-tale signs
- the causes and consequences of a poor patient experience
- how outsourcing admin and reception tasks can improve the patient experience
- the benefits of VARS for your practice.
Alternatively, if you’d like to find out more about how VARS can benefit your practice, book a meeting with one of our Practice Success Consultants.
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Disclaimers
Persons implementing any recommendations contained in this publication must exercise their own independent skill or judgment or seek appropriate professional advice relevant to their own particular practice. Compliance with any recommendations will not in any way guarantee discharge of the duty of care owed to patients and others coming into contact with the health professional or practice. Avant and Avant Practice Solutions are not responsible to you or anyone else for any loss suffered in connection with the use of this information. Information is only current at the date initially published. © Avant Mutual Group Limited 2024.