Patient experience and employee well-being – pillars of private healthcare
Private healthcare clinics face many challenges today, including increasing costs, regulatory pressures, competition from public and other private providers, and the constant need to deliver excellent patient experience. To survive and thrive in the healthcare industry, private clinics need to differentiate themselves by offering high-quality services that meet their customers’ needs and expectations while ensuring their employees’ well-being and satisfaction.
Customer experience and employee well-being are crucial to the success of private healthcare clinics. This article examines the importance of these factors and provides strategies to improve them – contributing to happier clients and employees, in addition to smoother operations.
Why patient experience matters
Customer experience is the sum of all the interactions and perceptions that a customer has with a business from the moment they become aware of it to the point of purchase and beyond.
Customer experience drives customer loyalty, retention, and advocacy, affecting revenue and profitability. Patients are likely to switch to a competitor if they are unhappy with their healthcare experience. On the other hand, many will recommend a provider to others if they are satisfied. Thus, private healthcare clinics benefit from setting a focus on delivering a positive and memorable patient experience that create value and trust for their patients.
How can patient experience be improved in private healthcare?
Many factors influence the customer experience in healthcare, such as the quality of care, convenience of access, communication and empathy of staff, cleanliness and comfort of facilities, and the transparency and fairness of pricing.
To improve customer experience, private healthcare clinics need to adopt a customer-centric approach, considering their patients’ needs, preferences, and feedback. Thereafter, making continuous efforts to align their processes, systems, and culture accordingly. Some of the best practices for improving customer experience are:
- Regular customer surveys and reviews: measure and monitor customer satisfaction and identify areas for improvement and innovation.
- Multiple reliable communication channels: provide timely and consistent responses via phone, email, website, social media, or mobile apps.
- Flexible appointment scheduling: offer convenient online booking and reminders and reduce waiting times and cancellations.
- Staff training and empowerment: ensure that employees are trained and skilled at delivering high-quality care and that they are effective and empathetic when communicating with customers.
- Comfortable and welcoming environment: maintain clean and modern facilities with adequate amenities and appropriate branding.
- Clear and transparent information: provide information about the services, prices, and policies and ensure that customers are informed and involved in their care decisions.
- Customer loyalty programs: implement referral schemes and reward systems to encourage repeat visits and positive word-of-mouth.
Why employee well-being matters
Employee well-being is the state of employees’ physical, mental, and emotional health and happiness, and how they feel about their work and workplace. It is influenced by many factors, such as work-life balance, job satisfaction, organizational culture, and leadership support.
Employee well-being is important not only to the individual but also to patient care, clinic performance, and service quality. Challenges in private healthcare clinics, such as high demand, limited resources, and regulatory pressures, can negatively affect employee well-being. This further highlights the need to prioritise and promote a healthy and engaged team of employees.
According to a study by Gallup, engaged and happy employees are 21% more productive, 22% more profitable, and 10% more customer focused. Moreover, well-being impacts employee retention, absenteeism, and turnover, which have significant business costs.
Research has shown that employee well-being can have positive impacts on:
Considered the above factors, private healthcare clinics must invest in employee well-being and promote a positive and supportive work culture.
How can employee well-being be improved in private healthcare?
To improve employee well-being, private healthcare clinics need to adopt a holistic and proactive approach that addresses their employees’ physical, mental, and emotional needs and fosters a sense of purpose, belonging, and growth. Some of the best practices for improving employee well-being are:
- Flexible work arrangements: offer remote work, part-time, or compressed schedules to support work-life balance.
- Fair compensation and benefits: provide competitive pay, health insurance, retirement plans, and paid leave. Recognise and reward employees for their performance and dedication.
- Supportive work environment: foster a culture where employees feel valued and trusted, with regular feedback, recognition, and career development opportunities.
- Wellness programs: promote physical and mental health trough wellness workshops, fitness classes, counselling services, and employee support programs
- Community building: promote collaborative teamwork and foster trust, respect and diversity through team-building activities, social events and mentoring programs.
- Adequate resources: ensure employees have the tools and equipment needed for their tasks.
- Regular surveys and reviews: measure employee engagement and identify areas for improvement and innovation.
By investing in employee well-being, private healthcare clinics can improve the quality of care provided to their patients. Employee well-being is a key factor in the success and sustainability of private healthcare clinics in a competitive and demanding industry.
Healthcare spotlight:
How can textiles support patient experience and employee wellbeing?
For us, our uniforms also serve as protective clothing! It must be practical, fit well and be hygienic. It also allows our customers to identify our healthcare professionals.
Marju Jurmu, Director of Nursing at Kuusamo Health Services
Healthcare uniforms and linen are essential for patient safety from a psychological and physiological point of view. Visually fit-for-purpose uniforms can build trust in patients and their families. In addition, in healthcare, uniforms need to be a barrier to unexpected exposure of splash, sneeze, and secretions.
Prof. Dr Susanna Tella, Chief Patient and Healthcare worker safety specialist, LAB University of Applied Sciences
Customer centricity and employee well-being: competitive advantages
Customer experience and employee well-being are interrelated and crucial for the success of private healthcare clinics. Improving customer experience can increase loyalty, retention, and advocacy, and enable a competitive edge in the market. On the other hand, improving employee well-being enhances employee performance, productivity and quality while reducing employee turnover, absenteeism, and costs. Achieving these outcomes requires a customer-centric and employee-centric approach that considers the needs, preferences, and feedback of their customers and employees, and aligning their processes, systems, and culture accordingly.
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