4. We can
continue to offer
great care
only if we
continue to have
patients!
5. Did you know?
• Patients find it easier to evaluate the quality
of the service they receive than to evaluate
the quality of the care they receive.
• Therefore, quality of service may play a
bigger role in their choice of physician and
practice.
And if the service isn’t great ...
6. Even if we provide the highest quality
of care …
If the patient
perceives poor
customer service, it
could have a
significant, adverse
impact on the
practice.
For example…
7. Jane Jackson, a 45-year-old wife and
mother of two, comes to the clinic for
shoulder pain.
8. Once inside, Ms. Jackson finds the
receptionist sending a text message
and receives no greeting or help
for several minutes.
9. Ms. Jackson knows there are other
options in town, so she doesn’t tolerate
the poor service. She walks out the door.
10. Once she leaves, she won’t
come back … and it’s not just
Ms. Jackson the practice
loses as a patient …
11. Remember, Jane Jackson is a wife and
mother of two. If she has a bad
experience, she won’t hesitate to take
her family elsewhere for healthcare.
That one poor customer service
experience can prove costly.
12. Jane’s healthcare costs
for the year are significant
because she needs:
• Initial shoulder checkup
and x-ray
• Follow-up visit for injury and supplies
• Annual preventive exam
• Acute visit to walk-in clinic
• Acute visit to walk-in clinic
• Flu vaccine
14. Her 13-year-old son needs:
• Annual preventive exam
• Sports physical
• Acute visit to family
physician
• Flu vaccine
15. Her 15-year-old daughter needs:
• Annual preventive exam
• Sports physical and second
HPV vaccine
• Acute visit to family
physician
• Third HPV vaccine
• Flu vaccine
16. What did that one bad
customer service experience
cost the practice?
How many people did Ms.
Jackson tell about the poor
customer service?
How many patients will never
come to the practice as a
result of that one bad visit?
When you have a bad
experience somewhere, how
many people do you tell?
17. Think about it …
If Ms. Jackson had walked out
of our practice, how much income
would we have missed
because of that one bad
patient service experience?
18. Who could a patient possibly
deal with during a visit?
•Receptionist
•Locum Tenens or other contracted temp
worker
•Medical assistant
•Nurse
•Physician
•Billing
•Medical records
•Radiology staff
•Phlebotomist
•Administrator
•Any of the clinic or contracted staff
•Mid-level providers
Information desk associate
19. Many people interact with a patient before,
during and after a clinic visit. Just one poor
exchange with someone in our clinic could
turn a patient away. This could even be
before the first visit, as a result of a call to
the practice.
Every contact with a patient or patient
representative is important and should
be treated as such!
20. It doesn’t stop with one family
• An average dissatisfied patient tells
25 others about the negative experience.
• For every patient who complains,
20 other dissatisfied patients don’t complain.
• Of those dissatisfied patients who don’t
complain, 10 percent will return while
90 percent won’t.
• It costs 10 times more to attract new
customers than it does to retain current ones.
Zimowski, HFMA Journal 2004 Rubin, et. al. JAMA 270
• An average dissatisfied patient tells
25 others about the negative experience.
• For every patient who complains,
20 other dissatisfied patients don’t complain.
• Of those dissatisfied patients who don’t
complain, 10 percent will return while
90 percent won’t.
• It costs 10 times more to attract new
customers than it does to retain current ones.
21. Times are changing
• National healthcare focus has shifted
to put a greater emphasis on accountability.
• Patient satisfaction ratings, such as Centers
for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
indicators, are public information and readily
available online for potential patients to view
and compare.
23. Strategy
• We should identify customer service as
one of our key priorities.
• Great patient experience is important
to our patients and to our bottom line.
• We should identify patient service issues
and address them.
• Are there gaps or inconsistencies in our
service? Are there things that frustrate our
patients that we don’t know about?
24. Our plan of action
• Collect information from patients about
the customer service we provide
• Celebrate high marks from our patients,
and take steps to improve service issues
• Do it again and again, so our service
gets better and better
25. Expectations of the team
• If asked, agree to serve on the patient
satisfaction work group, to be formed soon.
• Work group will collect first round of patient
satisfaction information.
• All of us will review the collected information.
• We’ll celebrate areas of good service – and
develop improvement projects around areas
that need help.
