Whether they should concentrate on patient satisfaction or combat payment challenges becomes quite a dilemma for physicians. The reason for the dilemma arises out of the need to be just to both. Administrative demands have increased the stress levels of physicians due to which achieving a balance between the two gets difficult.
Patient satisfaction VS Payment challenges
This is an area wherein physicians need to go that extra mile to ensure their patients are given the best treatment, not just in terms of medical but also a moral and an emotional treatment. Patients need to get a feeling that they are not just another client of their doctor, but someone whom they could bank on. This treatment would go a long way in increasing the popularity of your practice.
However, in case the focus moves from patient satisfaction to payment challenges, owing to the burdens of administrative work, this may affect the number of patients visiting you. It may lead to unsatisfied patients resulting in loss of business. Any discrepancy from patient’s end regarding insurance or any other detail to be provided needs to be tackled with patience. A frustrated or discourteous staff may give you more disconnected and disappointed patients.
Hence, it is beneficial that a physician chooses patient satisfaction over payment tasks. A good practice would have achieved a balance between the two so as to have no negative impacts of the ever increasing requirements of the government.
Achieving patient satisfaction
Patient satisfaction is not a task. Striking a general conversation with them prior to opening their report, following up with them on their health with a phone call, either by you or your staff, gives them a feeling of security.
Thus, with a thin line running between patient satisfaction and payment challenges, keeping both on the upper side will prove advantageous to every practice.
