Decrease Wait Times and Increase Patient Satisfaction

Improving patient satisfaction is a key factor in retaining patients, improving clinical outcomes, and setting your health center apart from the competition. Most health centers that I work with know it's a priority, but aren't sure exactly how to improve patient satisfaction.

For most people, time of of utmost importance. Speed is one of the most effective ways to outdo your competition in the healthcare landscape. If your health center can provide the same service in less time, you're going to attract the segment of people who do not like to wait (which is most people).

In healthcare, there are so many points at which a customer is left waiting. Waiting on hold to schedule an appt or talk to a provider, waiting to be taken to the room, waiting for a provider, waiting for lab or imaging results, waiting for an appt, waiting for their bill, and waiting for a follow-up.

Here are some best practices to address wait times at different stages of a patient's experience with your health center.

1. Pre-visit: Scheduling

Studies show that you have 7 seconds to make a good first impression with a new customer. So, if someone's first interaction with your health center is to make a new appointment, make sure it is a quick and easy process. Online scheduling is the best way to do this, but if you haven't implemented that option yet, than make sure they don't sit on hold very long. And, offer extended hours or weekend appointments to increase the number of new patient spots you have available.

2. Check-In Process

Long check-in lines will be a deterrent to retaining patients, so make sure you have efficient processes to keep the line moving quickly. Have self-serve kiosks or mobile check-in options, encourage patients to fill out paperwork in advance, and use quality improvement frameworks like LEAN or Six Sigma to improve check-in processes.

3. Waiting Room Experience

Everyone expects to wait a few minutes to be called back to the clinical room, but they don't want to wait in a place that has dirty floors, dingy walls, or uncomfortable chairs. Make sure your waiting room is clean, welcoming and comfortable. I am not a fan of providing coffee in a waiting room, because it inevitably gets spilled. And, if you're moving patients quickly to an exam room it becomes something they have to juggle when gathering their stuff. You just need plenty of comfortable chairs, wifi, and big walkways. Bonus points if you also have a digital display to keep patients informed of current events at your health center.

4. During the Visit

Patients can wait a long time in an exam room or clinical space if providers are overbooked. Use clinical support staff to get patients roomed and ready so that all the provider needs to do is talk to the patient. Pre-visit planning helps the provider know what to print, order or prepare before the visit even happens, which is another great way to reduce patient wait times during the visit.

5. Post-Visit: Check-out

Patients really don't like to have to check-out. They've already given you a lot of their time for their visit, so to ask them to wait in line to check-out is very frustrating. It should be an automated process that is triggered at the end of the visit. This is why getting people signed up on the patient portal is so important. They can review their visit summary, treatment plan, and communicate with the provider on any follow-up items from the visit.

Speed can be your competitive advantage, but don't sacrifice quality for speed. Tighten up operations and workflows, measure cycle times, and train staff to always be looking for ways to decrease wait times for patients.

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