How to implement a patient experience program in your medical practice

Patients deserve high-quality medical care, and they deserve — and expect — to feel safe, heard, and respected whenever they interact with your practice. Prioritizing a positive patient experience can result in significant benefits, including enhanced care quality, improved treatment adherence, greater engagement, and increased trust — resulting in strong provider-patient relationships linked to better outcomes. 

Delivering an outstanding experience also directly impacts your practice's bottom line. Experience drives patient satisfaction, which is linked to patient loyalty, increased referrals, and positive online reviews. 

A positive patient experience can boost your practice's reputation, offering an edge in the competitive marketplace. On the other hand, negative experiences can lead to lost patients, poor online reviews, reputational damage, and revenue loss resulting from dissatisfaction with the services provided. 

A patient experience program helps maintain a practice-wide commitment to making patients feel welcome, valued, and supported. The following framework can help you outline a program that meets the unique needs of your practice, boosting retention and revenue gains.

A patient experience program is a structured approach designed to enhance patients' perceptions of the time they spend with your practice.

The program addresses all touchpoints, from the first time a patient contacts the office to follow-up after every visit. It involves evaluating your current patient journey, gathering patient feedback, setting targeted goals, training staff, and continually refining the process for ongoing improvement.

Following these strategic steps can help you develop a successful patient experience program.

To improve experience, you need a clear understanding of the patient's journey from their perspective. Focus on points of contact that matter most to patients, and consider all such interactions, regardless of duration. Even very brief contact can make a lasting impression.

Observe whether staff are polite and helpful, if calls are answered promptly, and if patients are frequently put on hold.

Note if patients are welcomed by friendly staff when they arrive and whether questions and concerns are addressed with respect and kindness.

Keep a log of patients' time in the waiting and exam rooms before being seen. Check whether staff keep patients updated when wait times run longer than usual.

Do follow-up calls or emails happen in a timely manner? Are staff proactive about patient needs and questions expressed during follow-up conversations? 

To ensure you're addressing actual patient concerns, try these simple feedback-collection tools:

Keep surveys and suggestions anonymous to protect patient privacy and maintain HIPAA compliance.

Focus on smaller goals that will add up to meaningful improvements over time. 

Examples of specific, attainable goals:

Concentrating on realistic, trackable goals also helps your team stay focused and engaged in making positive changes.

Set your staff up for success with targeted training, and empower them to deliver a top-notch patient experience. 

For a well-informed and engaged team, provide simple communication scripts that support patient greetings, check-in conversations, and frequently asked questions. 

Empathy training helps team members remain calm during patient interactions so that they can respond with respect and compassion.

Encourage staff to take ownership of the delivery of quality patient experience. They should feel comfortable raising concerns about how something impacts experience and be free to suggest improvements to the program and procedures if they believe it can make a positive impact.

Like any initiative, a patient experience program requires monitoring and follow-through. Keep the momentum going with monthly progress check-ins that help you identify and adapt to changing patient needs and real-world challenges.

Set aside time each month to:

Document changes and results using spreadsheets or dashboards so you and your team can visualize progress over time.

Better patient experience is achieved through ongoing, intentional action — not by overhauling everything simultaneously. Start with one improvement, measure its impact, and adjust as needed. Remember that simple, consistent changes can dramatically shift how patients feel about the care they receive at your practice.

Looking for a more straightforward way to manage patient experience? Tebra's all-in-one patient experience solution streamlines key processes that boost retention and referrals, fueling long-term revenue growth.