4 Ways to Up Patient Satisfaction

We here at MyMedicalMalpracticeInsurance.com know that patient satisfaction is important to our physicians. First, physicians want to provide excellent care for their patients –that is why they became physicians in the first place. And, second, most physicians know that satisfied patients are much less likely to sue them for med mal, causing them to have to use their physician liability coverage.

There are many easy-to-implement ideas that physicians can incorporate into their practices to increase patient satisfaction. Putting these ideas into practice can potentially decrease your chances of having to use your med mal policy.

Four Ways to Increase Patient Satisfaction So You Don’t Have to Use Your Physician Liability Coverage

1. End all of your patients’ appointments by asking if you have answered all of their questions.

2. Provide a follow-up phone call for your more complex patients. Again, ask if they have any additional questions and express that you understand they are facing a complex situation and just wanted to make sure that they understand everything.

3. Survey your patients. Asking patients about their experience post-visit lets patients know that you genuinely care about their experiences in your office and gives you concrete rather than anecdotal evidence that your patients are satisfied. Physicians should not assume that no news is good news when it comes to patient satisfaction. Patients may simply choose to vent their negative views of a practice online, rather than to you or your staff. And, because we feel patient satisfaction is so important, we provide our physicians with a free online patient satisfaction survey tool. This is just one of several free tools that we provide our physicians.

4. Provide patients with a personalized take-away. The paper should list the date of the appointment, physician seen, reason for the appointment, and any follow-ups needed, like: when to schedule another appointment, whether a prescription needs to get filled, whether a referral appointment needs to be made and with whom, etc. And, of course, put it on your office’s letterhead with contact information.