Patients are the main strength of a practice, and it is they who decide the success of your practice. Therefore, the patient experience at your practice matters more than anything, and it is your responsibility to make them feel comfortable and welcome in the dental services that you provide. Different patients have different expectations when visiting your practice; some may be scared of the treatment while others may have unrealistic expectations. To ensure a positive patient experience, you must provide them with the best possible treatment and dental care. This means doing your best to create a professional, but warm and friendly environment that gives due importance to patient satisfaction. Given the keen competition we face today, patient experience means much more than just a clean, pain-free visit. It is all about building trust and connecting with your patients on a personal level. With some simple tips, it is possible for your practice to improve patient experience and make an impact on their lives.
Some tips to improve patient experience at your facility:
1. Create a positive and comfortable ambience
It is important that your patients receive the best kind of dental care and comfort at your practice. The first step is to create a positive, welcoming environment. Remember, different patients come with varying levels of anxiety and sometimes even fear; they might even be in pain. All this already makes a doctor’s office or clinic a stressful place for the patients to be in. Therefore, the atmosphere you create for the patient at the practice can make a huge impact on the overall patient experience. Make them feel comfortable and at ease, by ensuring you have a team of friendly and welcoming staff, clean and inviting waiting rooms, providing some additional amenities to keep them engaged while they wait their turn to receive the dental services, etc.
2. Enhance your appointment scheduling process
An important step to improving the patient experience is making the appointment booking process easy and convenient, especially in our present day scenario of intense competition. The easiest way to do this is to make sure that you have the option to schedule appointments on your website which is user-friendly. Ensure that all the necessary contact and location information about your practice is included on your website. Do not fail to mention the days and the hours your facility will remain open. If scheduling an appointment at your facility becomes a tedious task, patients would easily look for another practice which has easier and quicker options for scheduling a visit.
3. Offer a wide range of quality services
After all, patients visit your practice to get the best possible treatment. Their first priority would always be the quality and range of dental services provided. Therefore, if you want to deliver a great patient experience to your patients, it is important that you cater to the wide range of quality treatments that they would expect. Finding another practice that would accord them all the care and treatments they need would not be too difficult. Always stay up-to-date on the various treatments and dental services offered at your practice – never allow your practice to fall behind.
4. Communicate with your patients
Successful patient communication is one of the greatest and most effective strategies to enhance the patient experience at your practice. Understand that your patients may be confused and worried about a lot of things while coming to your practice. Therefore, the onus is on you to ensure your patients are well-informed about what treatment is best and how the treatment would progress. A thorough explanation of the treatment plan and why it is necessary must be imparted to the patient. It is also important to go into detail about the benefits and drawbacks of treatment plans, and to be open and honest with them so that they can make well-informed decisions. It also helps in creating a strong bond with your patients, giving them the feel of being quite valued and trusted. Give room for no miscommunication or misinterpretation as it can cause grave misunderstanding, confusion and worry for your patients
as well as for your practice. The key is to create an efficient patient communication channel to help you avoid these situations.
5. Improve your practice’s billing process
Even if your practice is successful in providing excellent treatment and dental care for your patients, a complex or inconvenient billing system can still lead to patients feeling frustrated and dissatisfied. Patient satisfaction can be improved through better billing practices such as managing patient expectations, alerting patients of charges not covered by insurance, and providing different payment options. Make sure that you bill the patient for the dental services as soon as possible; don’t make them wait too long as it can leave your patients frustrated. Your practice’s billing process can either make or break your patient’s experience.
Great patient expectations are more important for your practice than you can imagine. Patient satisfaction begins from the moment the patient first contacts your practice and lasts until the payments are completely settled. So, start with the appointment scheduling process and look into each step to find where more attention is needed. Know that improved patient satisfaction is valuable in creating a better patient-provider relationship.
