Mystery Shopping The Healthcare Industry A Must For Patient Retention

Mystery shopping the healthcare industry may strike some as counter-intuitive. Medicine and commerce have traditionally been mutually exclusive endeavors, but as medical practices consolidate and look more and more like regular businesses, patient retention becomes a growing factor.

The era of crotchety doctors and long waits in DMV-esque waiting rooms is drawing to a close, and many healthcare providers have embraced reputable mystery shopping firms as a partner in improving the patient experience. Here is what they are measuring:

Healthcare providers audit the appointment setting process.

Medical offices are typically a beehive of activity, and this is often reflected in the poor quality of the phone conversations we have with receptionists and other staff. Mystery shoppers are most often asked to audit the following, when calling to set an appointment with a medical practice:

Was the staffer courteous and helpful?

Did the staffer gather the required patient information?

Did the staffer ask how the caller learned of the practice?

Did the staffer tell the patient what to expect at the visit?

Did the staffer offer directions to the office? Did the staffer confirm the appointment details?

A good firm will ensure all calls are recorded so the client can hear how the call went.

Hidden video is becoming more prevalent for healthcare mystery shoppping, and gives an objective diagnosis of how your office is performing.

Healthcare providers audit the office visit.

Once the patient arrives at the office, there are many things that can affect the quality of the visit. Mystery shoppers audit everything from parking lot to the office and back. Here are the most commonly audited aspects of a medical visit:

How difficult was it to find the office?

How was the patient greeted?

How long was the check-in process?

Were the appropriate forms completed?

What was the wait time?

What was the condition of the waiting room?

How long did the patient wait in the examining room?

Were nurses and doctors friendly?

Did the doctor follow procedure in explaining the diagnosis?

Were options given?

Reputable firms offer mystery shops in the following types of healthcare practices:

Family practices

Pediatrics

PT/OT

Obstetrics

Dental

Orthodontics

Hospitals

Immediate care clinics

Cosmetic Surgery practices

There is a trend towards using independent contractors in many of the settings listed above. It is especially important to audit these situations, as there may not be as strong an allegiance from hired guns than from permanent full-time employees.

The Emerging Healthcare Sector in India … – Prof TK Jena

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What Healthcare Professionals are Saying about Bloodless Surgery

While some of the basic ideas and concepts constituting what is known today as bloodless medicine have been around for centuries, the idea of a set of medical and surgical techniques aimed specifically at eliminating the necessity of blood transfusions has only been around since the 1960s. The idea was spurred mainly by Jehovah’s Witnesses, who became outspoken about their opposition to blood transfusions in the beginning of the 20th century.

Physicians were initially skeptical about performing complex surgeries and operations without using blood transfusions. However, after decades of campaigning and even federal court cases, Witnesses won the right to be treated without blood transfusions.

The early practitioners of bloodless medicine worked almost exclusively with Jehovah’s Witnesses to perform bloodless surgery. In many cases, doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals noticed the results from bloodless operations were actually better than similar operations where a transfusion had been performed. Benefits included quicker recovery times and lower costs. Eventually, these physicians began publishing their results, noting the advantages to these bloodless procedures over traditional blood transfusions. They also explained these benefits to other physicians and encouraged them to adopt the practices with non-Witness patients.

After surgeons in New Orleans and Los Angeles gained attention for performing bloodless open heart surgeries (or “bloodless hearts”), the popularity of bloodless surgery techniques with physicians began to spread around the world. By the late 1970s, bloodless medicine was available at healthcare systems in the U.S., Canada, Europe and India.

Not long thereafter, the public began to take notice as well. Concerns about the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) led to people beginning to question where the source of donated blood used in transfusions was coming from. Fear over contracting AIDS through contaminated donor blood led to large numbers of non-Witness patients requesting bloodless surgeries.

Physicians have generally welcomed the increased demand for bloodless surgery in the modern medical climate. Bloodless surgeries have a number of specific advantages to both the patient and surgeon, as well as benefits to the hospital systems offering bloodless surgery. Because more than 50% of surgeries in the U.S. are pre-planned or elective surgeries, many doctors are actually encouraging their patients to consider blood transfusion alternatives.

Why do doctors and healthcare professionals like bloodless surgery methods? There are a number of specific reasons why a particular doctor or healthcare system might choose to offer bloodless medicine program. However, there are two huge advantages that benefit the doctor, the patient and the healthcare system.

1.) Bloodless Surgeries have fewer complications –

Fewer complications mean fewer post-surgery procedures and a quicker recovery time. This is obviously good for patients, but it is good for physicians as well. It frees up more of their time and lessens the likelihood that they could lose a patient in surgery.

Effective Healthcare Pr For Better Communication

The healthcare industry is without doubt, one of the most important, expensive and rapidly developing industries in the world. Each year, billions of pounds and dollars are invested into clinical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries in the hope of finding and distributing drugs that will help improve peoples lives. The healthcare industry is vast and diverse and includes doctors, patients, pharmaceutical companies, universities, governments and healthcare professionals involved in the distribution, discovery and advocacy of products. Healthcare public relations are also critical in the healthcare industry. There is no point producing an effective drug, if its benefits cannot be related to the public. Healthcare PR plays an important role in introducing, building confidence, opening up a good market share and bringing to people innovative clinical remedies. Companies that supply healthcare PR provide superior counsel and strategic planning to global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, healthcare providers and government agencies.

Healthcare communications agencies worldwide are working to help the stakeholders of the medical field and healthcare sector to be heard, informed and market products. Healthcare PR solutions include promoting, preserving and protecting the integrity of brands, building brands and franchises, designing and executing direct-to-consumer health campaigns that change behavior, communicating milestone moments with regard to scientific and regulatory instances, fostering lasting relationships for clients with professional and advocacy groups and managing brands throughout their lifecycle.

It is important for healthcare PR agencies to blend modern communication techniques with a deep knowledge of regional outlooks in order to effectively build the reputation and market share of the most recognized and reputable healthcare brands. Other important aspects of healthcare PR include pharmaceutical and device marketing, where products are marketed in a broad array of therapeutic categories and stages of development. Product launches are important too, where a range of products are introduced globally and on a regional basis. Media relations is also another aspect of healthcare PR, where media is used to generate attention for landmark publications and publicizing breaking news at major medical meetings. Advocacy relations are also important when it comes to healthcare communications. Having advocates lends credibility to healthcare campaigns and this is advantageous when trying to reach the consumer on a grassroots level. Health policy such as drug pricing, patent challenges, ethics and general skepticism is a common issue that healthcare related companies have to deal with healthcare PR can help with these issues by communicating and shaping health policy issues whenever they arise.

The Economy Of Healthcare In India

Healthcare industry in India has emerged to develop remarkably over the past few years. Demand for healthcare professionals is therefore mounting the chart. Healthcare Management is very exigent as well as worthwhile field of healthcare as it is no more confined to be a doctor only. Healthcare Management in India has witnessed outstanding growth which has increased the demand for qualified healthcare professionals in India. Its scope, opportunities and competition are also growing at faster rate. Till now in some areas doctors who are not professional trained are managing the entire hospital single handedly which in turns leaves no time for their patients. This basic need has increased the possibility to have healthcare institutions where professionals can be trained to handle this job specifically.

If you are passionate about Healthcare and aim to be a skillful and knowledgeable professional who believes in helping others then you have a quality to enroll for Healthcare Management Course. There are several graduation and post graduation degree and diploma courses in healthcare management depending on the background such as medicine, pharmacy, nursing, biotechnology, life sciences etc. Healthcare Management can be described as a field related to management and administration of healthcare systems. It can be studied through healthcare programs run in business schools, institutions or in a public health school. This course is not only limited to patient and hospital but it enables a person to understand the growth strategy, manage the healthcare delivery systems and focus on quality of service delivery. Such courses train the students to acclimatize to basic principles of management, stock management, and human resource management in context to hospitals and healthcare in specific in theoretical and practical mode.

MBA in Healthcare Management targets high caliber and compassionate managers who are eager to use their proficiency and expertise to have a promising career as a physician cum entrepreneur. It grooms a person not only as a skilful doctor but also as a healthcare manager. The key strength of this course lies in giving its students managerial and technical expertise in healthcare. Management course prepares an individual to hold decision making positions in reputable careers in pharmaceutical, medical product firms, financial firms, hospital or medical institutions.

It is due to the healthcare education in India, World is tending towards India to get reasonable and specialized treatments. India is having a propensity to rank high in terms of medical tourism. Healthcare organizations are expanding their scope by opening hospitals in new areas and focusing on the usage of latest technology and strategy. As healthcare is one of the primary points in Corporate Social Responsibility agenda. Many multinational companies have started undertaking healthcare projects through Corporate Social Responsibility. Multinational companies have extended their extreme support in healthcare system in India by organizing health camps, awareness programs focusing on women and children health.