One of the promises a doctor makes while taking the Hippocratic oath is “to always seek the physical and emotional well-being of the patients.” But a patient’s emotional state depends on their experience throughout the treatment period, from the time they visit the hospital till the treatment ends.
Did you know that for new patients, there is only a 5-20% chance they will come for a second visit? Improving your patients’ experiences can increase patient retainment and recurring visits, saving you the trouble of having to find new ones to sustain your business. Furthermore, happy patients will be more willing to give you testimonial ad referrals, thus boosting patient acquisition.
One way to create a seamless patient experience is by using a HIPAA-compliant Customer Relationship Management software. Abbreviated as CRM, this software helps businesses automate administrative tasks, respond to patients faster, improve patient onboarding and much more. And the best part? Since they are HIPAA-compliant, Healthcare CRMs will ensure that all your business’s patient data is handled with the utmost confidentiality, ensuring no leaks.
Here are some ways CRMs can help improve your patients’ experiences –
1. Personalization
One of the most fundamental ways to improve a patient’s experience is by individualizing the service provided to them. A CRM personalizes care in three ways:
2. Messages
How would you feel if someone wrote you a letter and didn’t even pen your name in their salutation? Not extremely pleased, right? While typing out a message that needs to be sent to hundreds of patients at a time, addressing each patient by their name can become a cumbersome task. This is where a CRM can help. This software can automatically add a more humane touch to your patients by addressing them by their name, mentioning their insurance company’s number, their age, patient history and more, all while maintaining HIPAA compliancy during messaging.
3. Marketing
CRMs can help you cater the right services to your patient. A CRM can track your patients’ activities and treatment history to help you analyze what a customer might be looking for. For example, if you notice that a person is looking at your in-house dentists on your webpage, then you can send them an email containing testimonials and services offered by the dental department. The tracking features of the CRM personalize your marketing efforts, thus improving patient experience.
4. Patient Care
While doctors can use EHRs (Electronic Health Records) to easily share clinical records with other healthcare providers to access vital patient information like allergies and medical history, they aren’t built to provide comprehensive and personalized data. For example, EHRs don’t provide follow-ups and communication capabilities, but CRMs do so. They can be integrated with EHRs to pave the way for feature-rich, patient-centered systems. While there is a lot of useful data on EHRs, there’s no benefit unless they can be easily accessed. CRMs can provide dashboards and patient journey mapping that make the data more understandable.
5. Digitization
Most times in healthcare, patients are required to submit documents such as identification, insurance cards, etc. This usually ends with the caretakers or the patient themselves having to run to and from the concerned department bringing in documents, receipts, etc. One way to help turn this situation around for the better is by uploading documents digitally. This not only saves time and effort but also the need to physically carry documentation and other records. Patients can easily upload necessary paperwork anytime and anywhere, making patient onboarding completely hassle-free for your on-ground team as well
6. Fast Responses and Follow-Ups
Doesn’t it annoy you when you’re left waiting for an update? Leaving patients in the dark about whether their appointments have been scheduled or their queries are being addressed is never a good thing. CRMs can send out immediate automatic responses to everyone who reaches out to you at any time of the day. This gives patients a sense of relief that their queries have been acknowledged and are being worked on. Furthermore, CRMs can also remind patients of any appointments. It can also remind doctors and other staff of any follow-ups that need to be done with the patient, thus ensuring a happier experience with quick replies and follow-ups.
7. Reduce Administrative Errors
Left unchecked, administrative errors can cause a lot of negative patient experiences. The hospital staff works every day and night handling tons of patients, but it can quickly lead to mishaps like appointment mix-ups, wrong bills, and even wrong patient information! CRMs help reduce the chaos by integrating all the different workflows, teams, and processes under one system, thus minimizing human errors. Not only are patients happier, but this also leads to more efficient administration as well.
It is extremely important that patients are given the utmost care and treatment. If there experience is a good one, you can be sure that they will come back to you the next time as well. While here are some of the main ways a CRM can help improve your patients’ experiences, there a lot more nitty-gritty ways that these software can improve both yours and your patients’ lives.
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