Patients have more choice than ever when selecting the healthcare facilities they visit and the providers they rely on for medical services. Thus, healthcare providers should strive to make their facilities the best they can be.
According to the U.S. News & World Report, the best hospitals in America all share a few key characteristics that keep their patients happy and as healthy as possible. Providers across the nation should strive to achieve the following characteristics in their facilities:
Putting Patients First
In healthcare, the needs of the patient should always be of primary concern, and all healthcare facilities work to ensure patients have favorable health outcomes. However, the best healthcare facilities do more to provide patients with a positive experience, from appointment booking to discharge. Regardless of whether a healthcare professional has a patient-facing role, their decisions could impact patient experiences, so it is critical that everyone within a healthcare facility develop a patient-centric mindset.
Providing a user-friendly website filled with information for patients is a good way for healthcare facilities to manage patient expectations, address patient concerns and walk patients through different healthcare processes. For example, facilities can provide detailed background information on their various providers or offer step-by-step guides for common healthcare procedures. In this way, patients can equip themselves with knowledge and trust before entering the facility.
Focusing Leadership
In every organization, leaders must be highly skilled and dedicated, and there is no exception for healthcare facilities. Healthcare leaders at every level need to be capable of making the right decisions for the business and patients. Considering that the healthcare landscape is so susceptible to change, leaders need to be especially focused on guiding their organization to success.
While hiring top-tier doctors is important for healthcare facilities as they often function as the face of healthcare organizations and thus help establish a facility’s reputation — administrative leaders also need to equip themselves with the best skills and knowledge. Enrolling in a healthcare management course is a good way for administrative healthcare leaders to stay focused on creating the best healthcare facilities.
3. Relying on Top Tech
Technology and modern medicine go hand-in-hand, making healthcare more affordable, reducing risks and increasing speeds of treatment and recovery. Therefore, it should hardly be surprising that the best healthcare facilities have some of the most cutting-edge tech tools.
It is important for medical facilities to have the latest and greatest machines and equipment, but administrative services also need technology to function. Healthcare facilities should constantly experiment with new technologies to improve services in every possible way.
4. Being Transparent
The healthcare system is complex, and rising healthcare costs tend to be both distressing and confusing to patients. Thus, when a healthcare facility can provide transparency with regards to their pricing structures, patients can develop more trust in that facility.
Transparent pricing isn’t necessarily synonymous with affordability. Healthcare facilities should avoid the temptation to slash care quality for the sake of attracting patients with competitively low prices. Instead, presenting prices in a clear and straightforward way and providing resources to help patients identify potential and real costs of care should help foster a facility’s reputation for fairness.
5. Showing Compassion
Patients are vulnerable whenever they visit a healthcare facility. Unfortunately, working in healthcare can cause many healthcare professionals to forget this fact, which might make them treat patients less like humans who need compassion and more like tasks that need to be ticked off.
It is important that healthcare professionals exhibit authentic compassion, as patients can expertly detect when a provider’s emotions are false. Practicing compassion involves making conversation with patients about non-health topics, being polite, acknowledging patients’ feelings, controlling one’s body language. And, perhaps most importantly, developing a positive work-life balance that prevents callous and uncaring behavior. Healthcare facilities should inject compassion into their workplace culture and ensure staff have the right resources to feel truly compassionate about their jobs and patients.
With the emergence of retail clinics and telemedicine, patients have more choice over their healthcare providers than ever before. Thus, healthcare facilities need to ensure they provide patients with the best possible experience and care.