What is patient experience, and how can medical practices improve it?

Not long ago, providing excellent patient care in a friendly atmosphere was enough to create a lifelong patient. Today, satisfying patients goes beyond care delivery. Independent practices must focus on all aspects of the patient experience to make sure they leave their appointments happy and satisfied.

What is patient experience? It's the sum of all patient interactions, from first online search for local healthcare to the follow-up after a visit. It can be viewed as an ongoing loop of access, communication, and feedback between your practice and the patient community.

Patients expect speedy and efficient services, convenient communication, and online access to request their records, lab results, and prescription refills. Patients who receive that — and more —are more likely to return, recommend you to friends and family, and leave you positive online reviews. Good news for your bottom line!

In this article, we will closely examine the patient experience and why it’s important. Then we'll share some actionable ways healthcare technology can help your practice. 

Modern medical practices must juggle many things at once. Not only do they need to deliver high-quality care, but also high-quality customer service to clients. 

Positive patient experience is difficult to achieve, as independent practices face high turnover and rampant burnout in the healthcare industry. Further accelerating the need for a better patient experience is the ever-rising cost of healthcare. With many people selecting high-deductible plans and paying more than ever for healthcare services, they expect an experience to match.  

Even having a long patient history at your practice doesn’t guarantee that a patient will stay. According to Tebra’s 5th annual Patient Perspectives report, 86% of patients would only give up to 2 chances after a poor experience with their provider. In addition, 27% of patients have left a provider over slow or no responses to questions and concerns, and 31% have left after a negative experience with the office staff.

Here's how a better patient experience can help your practice thrive.

A consistent and positive patient experience keeps patients returning and helps your practice attract new ones. Individuals who have a positive patient experience are more likely to become advocates for your practices. 

In visits, express the importance of online reviews and follow-up visits with a quick post-service patient experience survey. Survey responses offer your practice workable patient experience data, while online reviews help attract new customers. Simply asking for feedback goes a long way. 

Your practice’s patient experience is tied directly to revenue, growth, and patient retention. Patient experience affects patient engagement, which can keep patients returning to the office regularly. And good patient engagement results from consistently good patient experiences and helpful communications. 

Online reviews are the new word of mouth. An excellent patient experience encourages people to share the good news with others, building patient confidence in your practice. According to Tebra’s 5th annual Patient Perspectives survey, 62% of patients said positive online reviews were an extremely or very important factor in their decision to choose a provider.

Providing an excellent patient experience can boost patient engagement, which leads to better patient outcomes. If a client feels supported by all staff and services at your practice, returning for a follow-up won’t be intimidating. Patient interactions, like reminders to make appointments, encourage patients to seek medical treatment when they’d normally put off routine visits.

With so many touchpoints to engage with patients, practices must be methodical in their approach to improving the patient experience. An essential first step is to take the perspective of the patient to empathize with their journey.

Grab a piece of paper and pen, and write out what a typical patient journey at your practice looks like. Then, cluster touchpoints associated with each step. By breaking the patient journey into a few different categories, practices can make this process more manageable. 

Once you’ve identified the touchpoints, it's easier to form a strategy and choose ways to improve the patient experience at each step.

In measuring patient experience, it’s vital to identify your practices’ metrics for success. How long do you want to keep patients, on average? How frequent are follow-up visits? What is your average rate of no-shows, and what would you want it to be? Once you know what you’re looking for, you can collect patient data to improve your practice’s quality of care. 

Patient satisfaction surveys are an excellent way to catch blind spots and correct them. They’re also vital in letting patients know their feedback is valuable. The business of healthcare is fast becoming a business of customer service. Simply asking patients what they’re missing or would like goes a long way in delivering on their expectations. 

If surveys just aren’t cutting it, there are many other means to collect patient data. You can hire a 3rd party company to conduct a patient experience report. Focus groups are another great way to gather quantitative and qualitative data from patients. 

It's especially important to investigate and respond to negative online reviews. About 64% of patients who left negative reviews said they'd return to a practice if they responded to their complaints. These reviews enable you to collect more data. Is there any consistency across negative reviews? If the issue is systemic, how can it be addressed? 

Your online presence conveys what your brick-and-mortar practice is like, so be sure to be both responsive and attentive. Medical and dental practices should respond to every review, positive or negative.

For negative reviews, it’s best to acknowledge the reviewer and ask them to contact your practice privately about the matter. Doing so makes the reviewer feel heard and shows prospective patients you care enough to attend to patient feedback. 

Practices that wish to retain current clients and attract new ones must evolve their services and technology to keep pace. This is easier said than done, but don’t worry. Here are some steps your practice can take to meet patient expectations and offer a seamless patient care experience.

Most new patients will find your business online. In Tebra’s 5th annual Patient Perspectives report, 30% of patients consider the practice's website when choosing a provider. A cohesive, on-brand, presence across your website, social media accounts, and provider profiles is essential.

Ensure a user-friendly website with original photography and information about the services your practice provides. By having appropriate keywords on your website, Google can better rank your practice for patients to easily find.

Let's say a prospective client has researched providers, reviewed your website, and decided to book an appointment. Online scheduling is the next key step in supporting the streamlined and expected customer flow that e-commerce has made mainstream. This benefits practices, too, lightening the administrative role for already over-taxed office staff. 

Online payments are customary for just about every ​​customer experience we have these days. So it’s no surprise that more than 41% of patients preferred a digital option for paying their bill. 

Digital access tools are all about your practice accommodating current patient behavior. Now, in the world of smartphones, text messaging is key for patient communication. Tebra's Patient Perspectives report found that 69% of patients want digital appointment reminders, and 24% would switch providers for the ability to exchange text messages with the practice.

Also, 68% of patients want platforms that enable two-way patient communication to easily request prescription refills, make appointments, and ask questions.

Tebra's Patient Perspectives report found that 68% of patients would like digital intake — and 98% want to get it out of the way before coming in for their appointment. This can help the patient experience flow faster and create efficiencies at the front desk. 

Make pre-visit forms available online through email, text, or a patient portal. This lets patients complete paperwork ahead of time and can cut their wait time upon arrival at the office. 

The Patient Perspectives report found that 68% of patients who don't have a portal wish they did. A patient portal lessens the administrative burden on your front office team by providing core capabilities. This includes the patient's ability to request prescription refills, update insurance, and schedule future appointments.

There are few things more aggravating for a patient than a long wait time. Patients quickly grow annoyed, feeling that the practice is not respecting their time. Patient visits do run over — sometimes — and that’s OK. Work to keep wait times to a minimum, and most importantly, keep patients in the loop. If you know the provider is running late, send patients a text or place a call to let them know. 

Patients prioritize thoughtful, personalized healthcare providers who make them feel seen and heard and offer empathetic patient education. Digital access tools are essential to supporting scalable practice growth and function as a necessary add-on to excellent care. 

At the end of the day, patient-centered care remains the most important aspect of the patient-centered experience. In fact, 38% of patients want a provider who is a good listener. 

It’s easy to think of patient experience, patient satisfaction, and patient engagement as 3 versions of the same idea. But while closely tied, they are separate entities with their own influences and effects.

The patient experience is about how the patient is treated along the entire patient journey. It’s a way to add up how many of the things that are supposed to happen do happen.

It encompasses all patient needs and how they’ve been met. Were they able to book the appointment online? What communication occurred with the provider? Were billing and payments accurate? These all add up to a patient’s healthcare experience and can be objectively measured. It’s shaped by the technology a practice uses and informed by the practice’s culture.

The term patient satisfaction is about how patients feel about whether the practice satisfies their expectations and needs. 

For example, the ability to book an appointment online is part of the patient experience. Whether or not your practice offers online booking is an objective fact. However, 2 patients who book online may have different interpretations of the experience. One may be completely satisfied and the other disgruntled. It is a subjective opinion.

Greater patient satisfaction leads to higher patient engagement, which means patients are more likely to seek medical care when needed. A satisfied patient sticks to healthcare plans, remains with your practice, and stays engaged.

Patient engagement is the degree to which an individual is invested in and knowledgeable about their health and healthcare. Patient engagement is influenced by both patient experience and satisfaction. 

Practices can boost engagement by helping patients be equipped, enabled, and empowered regarding their health. A great patient experience can lead to higher patient engagement. This means patients are more likely to seek medical care when needed and have better clinical outcomes.

As an independent practice, you’ve always put your patients first. That is the foundation to building patient trust and a loyal client base. Today, patients are looking not only for high-quality treatment and a trusting doctor-patient relationship but simplicity and ease in service. Provide the same one-click digital accessibility people have come to expect in their day-to-day lives. 

In this self-service patient context, patient interactions are streamlined and simplified. This empowers you and your staff to focus on the most important part of the job: Helping patients heal.