1. Customer service
The standard of care increasingly encompasses remaining open for longer hours, “virtual” visits, Saturday appointments and chiseling down wait times. Many families have two wage earners, and time away from work for most families creates financial hardships. Limiting their time away from work or school shows respect for their needs.
2. Bundling visits
Our clinic system is quite large, and patients will travel two to three hours for specialist physician visits. Many offices try to bundle annual visits for vision, mammograms and OB/GYN care. They will also attempt to schedule all the children in the family for visits on the same day. This is a huge parent satisfier.
3. Transparency
More and more hospitals and clinics are posting information on the internet. This information includes every thing from pre and post-op instructions, costs, physician biographies to a rundown of specialists available in their area. With patients more “savvy” and interested in driving their own care, they arrive in the clinic and hospital armed with information about their physicians and knowledge of the care available to them.
4. Perils and pitfalls: The Internet
On the flip side of that “savvy” patient is the one who arrives in the office or hospital with misleading information from the Internet. At times that information may be false or potentially harmful. As good stewards of their healthcare, we are required to share the correct information, set them on the path to optimum healthcare and provide those services without offending the patient.
5. Marketing to the consumer
Manufacturers have noticed the trend toward self-teaching by patients. They understand a patient will enter the physician’s office armed with information on the newest technology for treating a specific problem. Again, that information may or may not be what is best for them; but this practice continues. As caregivers, being armed with the latest patient care information is the smartest way to assist patients in understanding what is best for their medical problems.
6. Payment plans, loans, financial counseling
New health saving accounts (HSAs) and health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) cost less for the patients but come with a high deductable. Out-of-pocket expenses can be $5,000 or more. Providing our patients with financial planning is justified in this changing economy. Some hospitals are developing loan plans with local banks to offer their patients payment options at a lower interest rate.
7. Outreach clinics in other cities
Each of the surgeons in our ENT group travels to outlying areas to see patients. They travel with nurses, audiologists and receptionists. This practice lets patients be seen near their home. Frequently, they will come into our city for surgery, and will again have their follow-up appointment close to home.
8. Self-referrals
Some healthcare systems are permitting self-referral to specialists. This practice eliminates seeing a PCP for permission to see a specialist, saving co-pays and more time away from work. This practice can cause problems after the specialist is finished: Patients are instructed to follow up with their PCPs, but if they don’t have one, this can be harmful to the patient’s outcome. Careful follow-up is important, and we need to have mechanisms in place for these patients to ensure they get the care they need.
9. Re-educating the physicians
The glory days are gone. Patients now consider a physician a partner in medical care. “Now, you let me be the doctor” and “I know what’s best for you” are no longer accepted. Patients want to have a say in their care and be well informed — and they expect the physician to feel the same way. This is very difficult for some physicians. Managers play an important role is helping their caregivers adjust to this mind-set.
10. Banging your own drum
Unfortunately, seeing your hospital’s or clinic’s name in the local newspaper is usually a bad thing. We can reverse that tradition by publicizing good news about our caregivers, patient satisfaction surveys, new equipment and case studies demonstrating the quality of our care. Being part of the wellness section in the paper, attending health fairs, offering public service to schools and organizations in your city, put you in the forefront of the public mind. Associating ourselves with wellness and as healers promotes positive discussions between our patients. Every healthcare system is going to get bad press at some point: That’s life. Reversing bad press with quality patient care is good business.
Patients are not only “voting with their feet”, they are looking for comprehensive care, from quality care givers, and they are more involved with finances and self-education then at any time in the past. If we are to survive in this industry, we are mandated to adjust to the changes in our patient population.
— Ms. Simon (lynda.simon@mercy.net) is the director of nursing for St. John’s Clinic and manager of St. John’s Clinic: Head & Neck Surgery in Springfield, Mo.
