Resolution #2: Lower Med Mal & Increase Patient Satisfaction

On this blog we talk a lot about patient satisfaction and how high rates of patient satisfaction lead to lower rates of being sued for med mal. Makes sense, right? But are you and your practice doing all that you can to raise levels of patient satisfaction? It might seem a bit strange to think about customer satisfaction and the customer’s “experience” in your office and with your staff, but a few small changes could go a long way towards showing your patients that you care –not just about their health, but also about how they are treated in all areas of your office. And as a nice bonus, you may be able to lower your med mal risk.

Our focus today will be on the members of your staff who are non-clinical, but still have a lot of patient contact –employees like the receptionist and other office support staff. While, of course, it is highly important to make sure that errors don’t occur by the clinicians, it is also important to make sure that your patients feel like they are being treated well by both the clinical and non-clinical staff –this goes a long way towards patients satisfaction. So:

1. Do you know how your phones are answered?
2. Do you know how your patients are greeted when they walk into your office?
3. Do you know how your patients’ reminders are given for upcoming appointments?

You get the idea –it’s the little things. While it sounds unnecessary, a script can be helpful for employees –both to ensure consistency in the patient experience, and to help train new employees.

If you would like to take your patient satisfaction one step further, and work even harder to avoid medical malpractice exposure, you may want to consider using our Patient Satisfaction Survey System. The survey system is a free practice tool that MyMedicalMalpracticeInsurance.com offers our med mal insurance customers.