Bringing your healthcare facility into the 21st century requires management of patient flow and physician surveys
The modern healthcare facility can’t merely expect to keep doing what it’s always done. Modern day healthcare is becoming more and more complex. The areas and issues to manage can become overwhelming. That’s why it’s necessary to update your systems, including things like physician surveys will ensure you provide a better service to your patients. It gives them an opportunity to have their say and you will gain insights that you may have never even conceived. The other key area in modernizing your healthcare facility, is to assess and improve the management of patient flow.
How physician surveys work
When it comes to improving transparency and giving the general public better choices, physician surveys play a vital role. They work as follows:
- Once a patient has completed their visit with a physician, they will be offered the opportunity to fill in a survey, rating the doctor on specific criteria. They will also be able to make comments.
- Any results gathered will be confidentially and no names of commenters will be shared with the doctors.
- The patient must . It helps if the survey is filled in as soon as possible after the visit with the physician. This ensures the experience will be fresh in the patient’s memory, allowing then to give the most accurate account of their visit.
- All the scores are aggregated and the doctor is given their set of ratings.
- Any potential improvement areas can be addressed and the physician can set a goal of improving.
Introducing patient flow management
Patient flow management is critical. Imagine a scenario where countless patients are waiting to be seen by a doctor. A single receptionist is overwhelmed by complaints and trying to manage a system which is inadequate. On the other side, some doctors seem to have a free schedule, while others are falling way behind schedule, having to see patient after patient.
Managing patient flow is about avoiding scenarios like this. It’s about making things run as smoothly as possible and minimizing errors, so that each individual that enters a facility can be seen as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Reducing errors such a big factor in managing patient flow. For example, a patient can book a consultation online and the system automatically updates the calendar of the doctor. The patient will be emailed a reminder, that will prompt them not to miss the appointment, and show up on time. Human error from staff mistakes is also minimized.
Why you should be improving patient flow
The key to improving patient flow is to invest in a system that takes care of the organization side of things. All the staff members, including doctors, nurses, receptionists, and management must be on board, receiving the necessary training to ensure they know how to follow the system.
It’s not just about seeing patients quickly though. Other important considerations are:
- Managing the use of rooms and equipment.
- Recording, presenting and analysis of data allows weak areas to be identified, addressed and acted on in order to improve.
- Appointments can be organized, to ensure there is no “double booking” mistakes aren’t made.
Utilizing patient flow analysis effectively
If you’re recording data, then it’s important to carry out patient flow analysis. Data on its own doesn’t mean much without being fully analyzed.
When using a patient flow solution, it helps to have reports such as average waiting time, average treatment time, time between activities and peak times by area.
Reviewing and interpreting the data is best done by someone with an analytical mind. If you don’t have any staff able to do this, then it’s best to subcontract it out, hire an analyst, or consider training an existing employee, to ensure that someone takes ownership for the data and can share it with the team.
By running a more efficient healthcare facility, you’ll be saving a lot of money, providing a better service to patients, and allowing doctors to spend their time doing what they are best at, which is treating patients. Patient flow management activities and surveys of doctors are two of the best ways to bring any healthcare provider into the 21st century.
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