Showing posts with label medical practice management tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medical practice management tips. Show all posts

Friday, January 6, 2023

4 ways to improve the patient experience for older patients

As the population of older adults is expanding, the number of hospital visits may also increase, and an influx of appointments can lead to a decrease in patient care if you’re not careful. Every patient, regardless of their age, deserves to experience high-quality treatment.

However, ensuring each step of their hospital journey is designed for ease, and convenience takes effort. Prioritizing the patient experience is worth the time and energy, as it can lead to higher patient satisfaction and, ultimately, higher patient retention — a win-win for you and your patients.



Steps to improve patient experience


As the population ages, hospitals are seeing more and older patients. And while these patients do not differ from their younger counterparts, there are some things you can do to improve their experience and make them feel more comfortable.

Improving the patient experience is not only for enhancing retention and care but also for bolstering population health and reducing the cost of medical care. Here are four steps you can take at your hospital to make that change:



1. Reduce wait times to see a specialist or doctor.


When patients have to wait for hours to see specialists, they may go elsewhere in search of better service or treatment options. This could cause the loss of valuable customers who would have stayed if they had received better service sooner.


Long wait times are a common patient complaint, ranking among the top five in a study conducted by the Office of the Ombudsman. Hospitals should strive to improve the patient experience by reducing wait times. Making more appointments and hiring more staff to support those appointments and fill gaps is an excellent way to reduce wait times.



If you cannot hire more healthcare workers, consider adopting new technology, such as Telehealth or a Healthcare Virtual Receptionist, to provide easier access to care and streamline appointments. Patients should be able to track their appointment time to know when they’re supposed to arrive. And if there are delays, ensure patients are kept updated on what’s happening so they know what’s expected of them.



2. The waiting area should be comfortable.


Making the waiting area comfortable demonstrates that a hospital cares about the comfort and well-being of its patients. If there’s one thing we know about older patients, they’re more likely to have mobility issues than younger ones. That means they’ll find it difficult to sit for long, especially if they’ve been waiting for hours already.



Providing comfortable seating, magazines, and books, as well as having a television or radio playing in the background, can give older patients a sense of calm and serenity to replace some of the anxiety that comes with appointment anticipation.



3. Show concern over their symptoms.


Another way to improve your patients’ experience is to show empathy toward their concerns. This can be done by showing concern over their symptoms and asking questions about their feelings (e.g., “How is your pain level right now?”). It can also be done by listening when they speak instead of interrupting or talking over them.



Doing these things will show your patient how much you care about them and what’s happening in their lives outside of medical appointments, making them feel more comfortable with you.



Teach your staff team how to listen carefully to patients and their families. Instruct them to write questions for the patient to ensure all issues are addressed. Showing concern could also provide timely patient feedback.



4. Improve communication with patients


Older patients may have difficulty communicating with you because of hearing loss, vision problems and other age-related issues. A caring approach can improve communication with older patients by letting them know you are listening and understanding what they are saying.



It is essential to lead with a person-centered attitude in encounters with patients and your employees, as a culture often trickles from the top down. Answer the phone promptly, introduce yourself to patients, and be helpful and willing to answer all their questions. If they seem restless, be reassuring. If they are worried, be comforting and confident. At the end of your interaction with the patient, be sure to ask if there is anything else you can do for them.



The patient experience is essential to all patients. But it’s even more critical for older patients. They are often more vulnerable and may not have the energy or ability to advocate for themselves. Older patients are looking for a healthcare system to take care of them. They want their needs met, and they want to feel heard. They need a healthcare provider who understands their struggles and can help them navigate the system in a way that makes sense.



Many healthcare professionals overlook the patient experience when it should be a priority. Taking that extra moment to acknowledge the older patients at your practice is essential. Treat them like you would treat a friend that is coming to visit. Welcome them warmly, shake their hands, help them with their luggage, and make them feel comfortable. Take these simple steps, and you’ll stand out from other providers in your demographic area — and your community will thank you for it.


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Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Expert Advice: Responding to patient panic about the Coronavirus

Ask patients open-ended questions when they call the physician practice panicked about the novel coronavirus. That’s the first piece of advice from Stephen Benning, PhD, professor of psychology at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “As clinicians, we have all kinds of questions that might panic people, but it’s up to the patient as to what’s actually bothering them,” he counsels.


For example, some patients may be worried about having COVID-19, the infectious disease, whereas others are concerned about their parents or other family members contracting the virus. Still, other people may be concerned about losing their job due to governmental efforts to prevent increased community spread of the virus.

His point? “If we, as clinicians, don’t ask open-ended questions, our answers may not be applicable,” says Benning.


Provide accurate information about COVID-19 testing
Tista Ghosh, MD, MPH, an epidemiologist and senior director of impact evaluation at San Francisco-based Grand Rounds, points out that many patients call physician practices because they want to get tested for the virus. Updated information about COVID-19 testing should be provided to the person responsible for answering the practice’s phone, she says.


In addition, the practice should record testing information on its pre-recorded message that greets patients when they call, says Ghosh, who previously served as Colorado’s director of public health and chief medical officer.

Be honest and comforting
Physician practices should communicate the accurate, current information they have about the coronavirus, says Simon Rego, PsyD, chief of psychology at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, N.Y.

For example, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the elderly are at higher risk for severe illness with the coronavirus. In fact, the federal agency reports that 8 out of 10 deaths in the United States due to the virus occurred among adults 65 years of age and older. CDC also says that the elderly and people of any age with serious medical conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, or lung disease, may be at higher risk for serious complications.

In addition, the CDC revealed that 38% of people sick enough to require hospitalization due to the virus were under the age of 55.

The most important thing is to provide patients with reliable information, says Rego. He points specifically to the World Health Organization and the CDC, which are constantly updating their resources and offering guidelines on hygiene practices and travel alerts.

“Educating the patient starts with alleviating their concerns. Part of that is educating them about reliable sources of information,” he adds. State and local health departments are additional sources of reliable information, says Rose Willis, JD, an attorney with Detroit-based law firm Dickinson Wright, where she advises physician practice and hospital clients.


Paul Gionfriddo, president and CEO of Mental Health America, advised in a statement that healthcare providers should do the following:

  • Screen all patients for anxiety at both sick- and well-care visits.
  • Take extra time with patients to assess the need for more intensive mental-health treatment that they receive right away. He stressed that mental-health effects, if untreated, could last for weeks or months and return unexpectedly.
  • Manage healthcare capacity to enable responses to mental health crises as they arise during the next weeks and months.
  • Refer patients to a variety of informational and support resources for mental-health follow-up. He also counselled against giving up if no clinicians are immediately available to take a referral. Peer support services are available from his organization’s affiliates, in addition to local advocates across the country who can provide clinical- and non-clinical support services.


Benning says the person answering the practice’s phone should tell patients when they should expect to get a call back, if their concern can’t be addressed during the initial phone call. That time period should allow the team member to consult with a clinician. Communicating a timeline can help alleviate some uncertainty for patients, he explains.

Don’t get ahead of the science
Bill Hopkins, JD, healthcare partner in the Austin, Texas office of law firm Shackelford, Bowen, McKinley, and Norton, agrees that patients are looking for reassurance and comfort. “While that sounds nice and wonderful to the average person, from a clinical and liability standpoint, that is where the trouble areas are for healthcare providers,” he explains.

Being reassuring and comforting is easier when a clinical condition is known and predictable, but healthcare providers don’t have this level of information about the coronavirus, points out Hopkins. Specifically, “overzealous words of reassurance and comfort can come back to haunt a healthcare provider if their compassion allows them to provide a false sense of security to [a] patient that isn’t backed in anything other than a desire to get the patient to stop panicking and calm down,” he advises.

If the information provided by the physician practice later turns out to be inaccurate or not backed up by clinical information, the patient could come after the practice for being negligent in providing that information, regardless of the intent to calm the patient, says Hopkins.

“Ultimately, healthcare providers should always err on the side of providing factual and clinical information, as well as compassion for the fear that the patient is feeling, but should always refrain from ‘going too far’ or ‘beyond the science’ in making promises or predictions that they can’t keep and could be accountable for if they’re wrong and didn’t have a clinical basis for the statements,” he says.

Align resources appropriately
The practice administrator must plan staffing for answering the phone and ensuring the environmental cleanliness of the practice, says Ghosh, a former member of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which provides science-based recommendations to improve population health.

It may be appropriate to invest in a virtual-call provider that can respond to patient calls, she adds. Physician practices that are part of large health networks can also inquire about tapping into their call-center resources.

Willis recommends providing a checklist to the person who answers the practice’s phone line. “Front desk people can’t practice medicine. They may have to refer the patient to a provider... make sure they’re having an appropriate dialog about the situation, not the medical piece.”

Coronavirus Response: Doctors can now practice across state lines

Regarding the cleanliness of the practice, Ghosh says it’s important to ensure that the waiting rooms and exams are cleaned frequently. Top of mind should be wiping clean doorknobs, touchpads provided to patients, desk surfaces, and TV remote controls in the waiting room.

Promote virtual care; update practice’s website
Physician practices can use social media to educate patients about telehealth visits, which can reduce the strain on emergency rooms and physician practices, according to Patric Wiesmann, managing director and general manager of Reputation.com’s healthcare and life sciences division.

Patients experiencing anxiety may never call the practice. That’s why it’s important to update individual clinician’s webpages and the practice’s website to include information about telehealth options, he advises.

Protocols developed by the CDC and other governmental entities continue to be updated. Thus, Weismann advises practices to add an emergency response message to the top of their websites and individual provider pages with important updates and information about the virus.

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Monday, March 23, 2020

Steps to follow if Physician Practice closures or layoffs become necessary due to Covid-19

Physician practices are currently struggling with how to handle physician and mid-level employment contracts in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although a practice may not be “required” to close, many have cancelled elective visits and procedures. This has greatly impacted patient volume and revenue, and may require full closure eventually. Even in practices that must offer some patient services, cutbacks are imminent.


Physician and mid-level employment agreements generally do not contemplate extreme situations such as COVID-19. Most contracts are terminable either without cause (which typically requires 30-90 days prior notice) or for cause. Employment contracts invariably require both the employer and employee to agree to any amendment. As a result, an employer risks potential liability if it unilaterally reduces a provider’s pay or hours.


While there are common law doctrines which arguably provide a basis for a practice not to fulfill its obligations under an employment agreement, the applicability of those doctrines to a situation such as the COVID-19 pandemic is uncertain.

As a result, practices are faced with the need to negotiate with salaried employees for reduced hours and/or compensation in order to remain in operation during this pandemic. Many practices have successfully negotiated such deals since some staff want to be home and others are willing to take less pay or work fewer hours to preserve their benefits and their job. But remember that any such modifications to employment contracts should be in writing to be enforceable and to avoid liability based on a breach of the agreement because the practice failed to follow the terms of the contract. You should refamiliarize yourself with any paid time off or other policies your practice may have in place! Also, make sure that you are offering similar deals to all contacted practitioners to avoid any claims of illegal discrimination.


For practices that have employees who are unable or unwilling to cut back or accept modifications to their contracts, a practice may have no choice but to provide notice of termination and to do so as soon as possible. E.g., if this pandemic continues for 90 days but the notice period in a provider’s employment agreement for termination without cause is 60 days, the practice will at least get relief from its obligations to compensate the provider after 60 days, but before the pandemic ends. While termination of a valued employee under these circumstances is unfortunate, it may be unavoidable. Paying an employee during the notice period may also be a challenge for many practices which may be struggling to survive in the coming weeks.


The following are the steps that should be followed by practices at this time as closures and layoffs become necessary:
  1. Review your practice contracts and policies so you are familiar with scheduling and compensation obligations. Figure out which employees have contracts and which do not and how those contracts might differ.
  2. Consider whether you should close the practice and whether this will be temporary or permanent. If you continue operations, can you lay off employees or cut hours and what will be required to do that? Establish a timeline for when these decisions will need to be made? This is critical if you need to terminate employees without cause and continue to pay them during the notice period.
  3. Work with your employees to determine flexibility. You may be surprised to find some are willing to give up compensation as long as they have benefits, others will take lower pay or fewer hours to help the practice survive.
  4. Many states will provide special unemployment options for workers who have been laid off or suffered a reduction in hours due to the pandemic. Make sure you and your employees understand the support that is available in your state. Even an employee who suffers a reduction in hours may be eligible for a partial benefit.
  5. Check the resources available to your practice. Many banks are making it easier to draw on lines of credit or to borrow funds. The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) is helping small businesses in many states. For example, Ohio recently sent certification to the SBA seeking an economic injury declaration related to the coronavirus. This will make funds more readily available to small businesses, and we expect to see other states follow suit.
  6. Practices should look at all possible avenues to survive the weeks ahead. Consider flexible telemedicine options which have been put into place during the COVID19 emergency to see how such option may benefit your patient volume and bottom line. Consider home visits or limited services that allow patients to feel secure in the practice’s office.
  7. Check your insurance policies to see what coverage you may have in place to cover business interruption and similar claims.
  8. Determine if there are other expenses which can be reduced or eliminated. For example, if your practice maintains a defined benefit pension plan, consider freezing the accrual of benefits or deceasing the plans’ benefit formula in order to reduce future contributions.

The current situation is fluid and available guidance is changing rapidly. Check in with counsel and stay on top of what your state and the federal government may be doing to assist medical practices and other small businesses to survive.

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