1. Increasing Patient Loyalty in Healthcare
Chase A. Brown Healthcare Groups and Administrations
Instead of preventive treatment,
healthcare today is still very much
focused on providing reactive treatment.
The patient meets one-on-one with the
physician, but typically, the patient is
never seen again until some other
problem occurs.1 A culture change in
healthcare has begun; in some
progressive thinking healthcare groups,
to shift from the one-on-one system to a
more team-based system.
“Evidence suggests that teamwork is
essential for reliable [medical]
practice.”2 A team of healthcare
providers centered on a patient and
focusing on preventative care, instead of
reactive care, makes the patient feel
more important. Hospitals need to adapt
a more personal method in order to gain
more long lasting patient loyalty.
To be able to more fully understand
what needs to be done to strengthen
patient loyalty, three main components
will be discussed: (1) provide quality
service, (2) personalize medical care,
and (3) work with patient through
medical teams.
Provide Quality Service
When a person is loyal to a business,
that person will show a willingness to
buy and recommend the product or
service to others. Loyalty is granted by
bringing satisfaction to patients, and
satisfaction is met by listening to the
patients’ needs.
Although quality service may be
provided to meet patients’ needs, if the
person does not choose to notice, service
will not matter. Inertia (old habits),
ignorance, dependency, and convenience
are other factors that may influence
patient loyalty.3 All four of the
previously listed factors may be changed
through advertising tactics and education
about the healthcare group’s goods and
services.
Service quality is how well the quality
of service delivered matches the
customer’s perceived expectancy.4
Perceived service quality is the
benchmark for all companies to satisfy
customer needs. Customers who have
witnessed many service experiences,
consequently, become more educated
and have an increased perceived
expectancy of service quality. The staff
is responsible to meet the expectations of
the customer.
Perceived service quality is relative.
Each customer has a different point of
view. In the growing transparency of
healthcare, differentiating one company
apart from the competition is critical to
survival. Being better at providing
services then the next is a great way to
differentiate. The customers will shift
from being satisfied with one company,
to being more satisfied with you. Notice
how the customer’s perception has
changed.
Engaged members of staff will ensure
that the individual needs of the clients
are met.5 When possible, include
patients in orientations of the present and
new practices being performed within
the facility. Show the patients what they
are paying for. After you show the
patients, know that they will expect the
quality of service seen in the orientation.
Be consistent. Consistency is key to
creating loyalty through quality service.

2. The following formula shows what
equates to a high standard or to a low
standard quality of service.
Figure: Service Quality Formula
Source: Courtesy of the author
As long as the perceived quality of the
good or service is greater than the
expected quality, then the service quality
will be deemed at least acceptable in the
eyes of the patient. The higher the
perceived quality the better the service
quality is rated.
When the patient has left the clinic or
hospital, continue the service outside of
the brick and mortar building. Use
appropriate channels (i.e., social media,
Pegasystems, etc.) to connect with
patients, and keep track of their healing
process and promote loyalty.6 The idea
of getting to know the patient on a more
personal level leads us into the next
section of personalized medicine.
PersonalizedMedicine
The “levels” of medicine have changed
overtime. The town doctor, making
house calls does not exist anymore.
Today the doctor does not know how the
patient lives, and vice versa. Soon the
way things are being done will change.
Two levels of medicine explain the way
medicine is, and the way medicine
should be.
Level 1 – This level consists of the
doctor linking patient’s symptoms to
treatments.7
Level 1 does not account for the
patient’s environment, genetics, or
individual mutations to diagnose the
problem, and assign proper treatment.
This level of medicine inhibits the doctor
from viewing the patient as a unique
individual; instead, the doctor views
each patient in the same way as the
previous patients. Level 1 teaches the
doctor that a specific symptom will
always require to the same treatment,
which is not always the case.
Level 2 – This level places the patient at
the center of the health system.8 Around
the patient is a team of medical doctors,
nurses, medical imagers, and others who
will help to gather appropriate
information about the patient. When the
team has personalized the medicine to
the patient and gathered information,
then the team can predict, instead of
simply reacting to a medical condition.
Personalized medicine is preventative
medicine.
MedicalTeams
The medical doctor, outside of the
surgery room, is typically not a team
player. Even in the surgery room the
doctor often dictates what happens;
rightly so, for the doctor is the specialist
in that situation.
According to Dr. Emily Leasure and her
colleagues from Academic Medicine, a
successful medical team needs (a) team
leadership, (b) mutual performing
Service Quality
Perceived
Quality
Expected Quality

3. monitoring, (c) backup behavior, (d)
adaptability, and (e) team orientation.9
The goal of an effectively designed team
is to provide an opening for all members
of the team to step up and be leaders.
Each team member can set goals for the
team that focus on the patient.
Medical teams are an effective way to
organize treatments, tests, and/or
prescription refills for a patient. Each
team member acts as a check and
balance for the others; whereas, lack of
interaction among team members can be
harmful to the patient.10
In conclusion, knowing that healthcare is
changing is important to keep a company
relevant to its customers. Those
healthcare groups who lag will be left
behind. It is important to obtain patient
loyalty, because loyalty, during tough
financial times, is the only thing
constant.11
Patient loyalty may be won through
engaged employees providing quality
service. Engaged employees carefully
listen to the patient’s needs and respond
accordingly. Personalized medical care
to patients will help the caregivers (i.e.,
nurses, doctors, and therapists) anticipate
the future needs of the patient. Finally,
centering each patient within a skilled
medical team will ensure the safety of
the patient through a system of checks
and balances executed by each team
member.
Endnotes
1. Haiech, Jacques and Marie-Claude
Kilhoffer. “Personalized Medicine and
Education: The Challenge.” Croatian Medical
Journal.August 2012. p. 298.
2. Leasure, Emily L. MD; Jones,
Ronald R. MD; Meade, Lauren B. MD; Sanger,
Marla I. RN, MBA; Thomas, Kris G. MD;
Tilden, Virginia P. RN, PhD; Bowen, Judith L.
MD; Warm, Eric J. MD. “There Is No ‘I’ in
Teamwork in the Patient-Centered Medical
Home: Defining Teamwork Competencies for
Academic Practice.” Academic Medicine.May
2013. Volume 88, Issue 5. p. 585.
3. Paul, James. “Hospital Loyalty
Program Member Service Experiences and
Resultant Hospital Performance Enablers: A
Qualitative Study.” The Internet Journal of
Healthcare Administration.2010 Volume 7
Number 2.
4. Ibid.
5. “Customer Loyalty Key to Hospital
Survival During Tough Times.” Professional
Research Consultants Inc. August 5th,2013.
http://www.prccustomresearch.com/customer-
loyalty-key-to-hospital-survival-during-tough-
times/.
6. Callahan, Brian. “Press Release:
Pegasystems Helps Healthcare Insurers Optimize
Customer Experience, Loyalty, and Care
Coordination.” Dow Jones Institutional News.
June 17, 2014.
7. Haiech, Jacques.“Personalized
Medicine and Education: The Challenge.” P.
299.
8. Ibid.
9. Leasure, Emily. “There Is No ‘I’ in
Teamwork in the Patient-Centered Medical
Home: Defining Teamwork Competencies for
Academic Practice.”
10. Ibid.
11. “Customer Loyalty Key to Hospital
Survival During Tough Times.”