Most people don’t think about their doctor’s office until they need it. However, the patient experience is a crucial element of your practice that can impact your bottom line. As a healthcare provider, you know that patient satisfaction is important. It can affect your practice’s reputation, help you attract new patients, and help keep current patients happy.

Patient satisfaction is a major factor in the success of a health care practice. If patients are not satisfied with their care, they may not return for future visits, and they may spread negative reviews about you online.

Here are eight ways to increase patient satisfaction:

1. Make your Office Clean

Make sure your office is clean and welcoming at all times. If a patient walks into a dirty office with dirty carpets, dirty windows, and a messy reception desk, they may assume this is the standard for all doctors’ offices. A clean office will show them that you care about their comfort while they are there, which shows them that they matter to you and their health.

2. Be Kind and Respectful

Engaging patients respectfully is the first step toward building a successful patient-provider relationship. This might seem like common sense, but it’s not something that always happens in practice. Many people have been treated poorly at some point, so this is an important part of creating a positive environment for patients. This includes treating all patients with the same respect regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, orientation and any other factors that may be important to them. If you want your patients to feel comfortable with you, then you need to treat them with respect first.

3. Be Patient

No one likes being rushed or waiting in line for care or attention. If you’re busy, let the patient know that you’ll be with them soon, so they don’t feel rushed or ignored. It also helps to have good communication skills without being rude or condescending effectively. Patients already know that they are sick or injured, so there’s no need for you to rush through your examination or treatment plans. If they are feeling anxious or scared about their illness or injury, they must know you understand how they feel and that they can take as much time as needed during their visit with you.

4. Listen to Your Patients

Physicians and medical professionals need to listen closely to what their patients say. When a patient shares something personal about themselves (such as an embarrassing moment), the physician or medical professional needs to listen and acknowledge it by saying something like, “That must have been embarrassing for you.” This will help build trust between patient and provider.

5. Ask Questions

People who feel listened also feel valued, respected and understood. You can ask open-ended or closed questions depending on what you are trying to find out from patients. The more you ask, the more you learn. Understanding what you can do to make your patients feel more comfortable is key to providing excellent care. It is good to ask questions about their expectations and what they would like to see from their healthcare provider. For example, if you want them to describe their symptoms, ask an open-ended question like “What is bothering you?” This allows them to tell you about their symptoms in detail and gives them a forum for expressing their concerns. Closed questions such as “Do you have any pain?” require a yes or no answer without additional information.

6. Make Them Feel Important

Patients want to feel like they are important and that they matter to the medical staff and the facility itself. Taking a few minutes out of your day to learn about each patient will help them feel more at ease with their care providers and the facility itself. Suppose a patient has something specific going on in his life that might affect his health. In that case, it is best not to assume he will bring this up on his own but rather ask him how things are going personally to make him feel comfortable enough with you so that he may share this information with you if he chooses to do so.

7. Use their name when addressing them or referring to them.

Using someone’s name is one of the easiest ways to show that you care about them as a person and not just a statistic on your chart. Using a patient’s name in conversation makes them feel like they are being listened to and cared for by someone who cares about them rather than just another number at the office. It also helps make them feel more comfortable talking about sensitive issues with you if they know that you pay attention to what they have to say instead of just seeing them as another number on your list of things to do today.

8. Be Honest With Them

Being honest with your patients is essential to creating a positive experience. If they ask a question that you don’t know the answer to, be honest! Be honest with them. If you don’t know the answer to a question or if there’s something that you need to find out, just say so. Letting your patients know that you are working hard on their behalf will help build trust and make them feel better about the overall experience. You can say something along the lines of: “I’m not sure what’s causing this, but I have an idea.” Then, explain what that idea is and why you think it might be true. This will help them feel comfortable asking for more information in the future.

Conclusion

Patient satisfaction is an important indicator of a hospital’s performance and success. Patients are the most valuable asset of a medical facility. If they are satisfied with their treatment, they will come back again in the future and recommend their friends. On the other hand, if they have any complaints or dissatisfaction, they will share their experience with others, creating a bad reputation for the hospital. According to recent research, 71% of patients say they would not recommend a doctor if they did not feel understood. And this statistic is not only true for doctors but also for nurses, technicians and other healthcare professionals.