Why Patient Satisfaction Scores Matter in Home Health

Asha Neil

Written on 8 December, 2022
Patient satisfaction scores help you improve patient outcomes, retention, and acquisition. They give you an objective way to understand and better the patient experience.

Why Patient Satisfaction Scores Matter in Home Health

Patient satisfaction scores help you improve patient outcomes, retention, and acquisition. They give you an objective way to understand and better the patient experience.

The Benefits of Patient Satisfaction Scores for Home Health

Quality health care means focusing not just on clinical outcomes and medical practices but also on patient satisfaction. As this is harder to measure, patient satisfaction survey scores play a valuable role in ensuring a positive experience.

When you have patient satisfaction scores, your home care organization benefits from:

An Objective Measurement of Patient Satisfaction

Patient satisfaction surveys provide a quantitative picture of the patient experience at your health care agency.

Whether you're providing disability services, aged care, or support for a client recovering from cutaneous and aesthetic surgery, patient experience is a critical part of good care and medical practice.

However, without a quantitative measurement, it can be hard to know whether your patient care is meeting patients' expectations. Patient satisfaction scores allow you to measure and track the patient experience, and in doing so, take action to improve it.

Better Health Outcomes

Patient outcomes improve drastically when there's a positive patient experience, even when there's no change to their medical care.

Not only do patient satisfaction scores reflect patient care quality, but clinical outcomes can also improve. Satisfied patients are more likely to take on board the advice of healthcare providers, resulting in better patient education, patient adherence, and health outcomes.

Improved Patient Retention

Patient experience is a key factor in retention rates. When you have higher patient satisfaction, you can expect more clients to renew their care plans. 

In turn, you will see increased stability and better financial outcomes for your home health agency, allowing you to attract talent and grow your business. 

A Marketing Tool 

Patient satisfaction scores can be a valuable statistic to highlight on your website. Prospective patients expect to receive care that is both high quality and empathetic, so drawing attention to your positive patient experience data will make for an effective marketing campaign.

Plus, satisfied patients are more likely to recommend you to other potential clients. Word-of-mouth marketing can have high conversion rates, as can customer success stories. Pairing this with your patient satisfaction scores will have the best effect on your marketing strategies.

How Can Home Healthcare Providers Measure Patient Satisfaction Scores?

Patient satisfaction scores are often associated with hospital care, where they're typically tied to physician bonuses. 

The most well-known scores are from the publicly reported Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey, a standardized national survey focused on in-patient care in healthcare facilities. Participation is a requirement for Medicare beneficiaries above a certain patient volume.

Despite not being a hospital, home care providers can also run patient surveys. You can either work externally with an agency to do this or design, administer and analyze your own survey.

No matter how you run your survey, the first step is to decide what you're going to measure. Remember, the more detailed your questionnaire, the more useful the answers will be.

However, detailed and lengthy questions may lead to survey fatigue and will require you to spend more time on analysis. You will also need to ensure patient anonymity throughout the survey process.

While it's possible to run an in-house patient satisfaction survey without the help of an agency, it can be a lot of work and may result in leading questions, unclear questions, or a biased analysis. Before you begin, ask yourself if you can invest the time and resources to run an objective survey.

How Can Healthcare Providers Improve Patient Satisfaction Scores?

The first step to improving patient satisfaction levels is understanding your scores: What areas show room for improvement? You may wish to investigate further with more targeted survey questions or feedback from your caregivers.

While your approach should reflect the patient satisfaction issues your agency is currently targeting, some tactics are almost universally valuable.

Further caregiver training can help you improve everything from bedside manner to clinical skills. Make sure you also set your team up for success by improving motivation levels and creating appropriate schedules.

Give your caregivers the tools they need to provide excellent health care. A caregiver app will allow them to check client details and progress notes on the go, and in doing so, improve clinical safety. You can also use document templates to both improve efficiency and ensure staff can always find the information they need.

The right software can help you improve patient outcomes and adopt a patient-centered approach to healthcare. Look for home care management software that will reduce the time your team spends on admin work so that they can instead focus on providing better care. Ideally, it will come with patient management tools for a better customer relationship.

Don’t forget client communication. Schedule regular patient check-ins and care plan reviews. Do they have a way to get in touch to provide feedback or request different services? 

Remember, improving patient satisfaction is not a one-and-done fix, but rather an ongoing collaboration between you, your staff and your clients. 

Healthcare Management Tools for a Better Patient Experience

Patient satisfaction scores are a valuable tool for ensuring your agency’s patients have a positive experience. They can support you in monitoring quality outcomes, as well as increasing client retention and acquisition. 

ShiftCare’s care management software can help you improve the patient experience. Its care and document management features will ensure your staff members have the information they need to provide excellent care, while the advanced scheduler will support you in providing patients with services at a date and time that works for them.

Plus, it comes with plan management and funds usage features, as well as a companion app for patients’ friends and family members. With these tools, you can ensure clients are receiving comprehensive and empathetic care.

Try ShiftCare for free to see how it can empower you to create an exceptional patient experience.

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