Five-Star Service: Treat Your Patients Like Valued Guests, or Else
// By Lisa D. Ellis //
The last time you went on vacation, you probably enjoyed five-star treatment from the staff at the hotels and restaurants you visited. But while customer service is paramount when it comes to dining and accommodations, most health care systems don’t think to treat their patients like valued guests.
The High Cost of Not Making Patients Feel Valued
Kim Mott, marketing and customer service manager for Florida Orthopaedic Institute
The danger is that if you’re not following the hospitality industry’s example, you may be leaving patients feeling disappointed in their overall experiences. This can be costly — especially if your dissatisfied patients then go online and give your physicians or service lines bad ratings, according to Kim Mott, marketing and customer service manager for Florida Orthopaedic Institute.
With most patients today shopping for health care online and comparing physicians and organizations, it’s more important than ever to make sure physicians and health care administrators listen to what people are requesting, and respond accordingly, Mott stresses.
Sharing Florida Orthopaedic Institute’s Experiences
Mott and her colleague Donna Bossuyt, director of marketing and customer service for the Florida Orthopaedic Institute, recently shared their experiences at the 2018 annual conference held by the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD).
Mott points out that that the institute’s journey in this area began a few years ago, when its leadership recognized that while the organization already had a stellar reputation for providing world-class care, its patient reviews were not living up to its high quality of care.