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his educational resource was developed through a cooperative effort between the Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association and the Am

Medical Association. Copyright 2008 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.

10 steps to enhance patient satisfaction in your practiceIn the current health care market, patients are seeking enhanced access to care and top-quality customer service.

One example of this demand is the substantial expansion of retail clinics. Offering patients walk-in service,

these clinics have achieved some success through catering to patients desire to have easy, immediate access tocare. Offering patients what they want will help keep your practice competitive. The following are questions

that can help you assess and improve your practices patient offerings.

Practice assessment: Evaluate your practice from your patients perspective.

1. Do you offer convenient hoursbefore and after regular business hours?

To accommodate patients that work during the standard business hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., you may wish to

offer early morning, evening and/or weekend appointments. Patients who cannot easily take time off from

work will appreciate the access and convenience of these alternate appointment hours.

2. Do you offer same-day appointments (open-access scheduling)?

Open-access scheduling, often referred to as advanced access, is a patient-friendly system that allows

patients to schedule appointments without waiting for several days or weeks to see their physician. Open-access scheduling is an effective way to decrease your backlog of appointments. You see your patients for

an appointment the same day they call, regardless of whether the nature of the visit is urgent or routine. For

example, you might book 35 percent of your schedule and leave 65 percent of the schedule open forappointments that will be scheduled the same day. When patients are able to see their physician the same

day and therefore resolve their health issue sooner rather than later, there is both a greater sense of control

for the physician and improved satisfaction for the physician and patient alike.

Learn more about open-access scheduling by visiting the American Academy of Family Physicians

Web site at www.aafp.org under Practice management and Practice transformation articles to

access helpful resources.

3. What is your procedure for urgent patient concerns after hoursis there a physician on call who isreadily available?

If you do not have a physician on call to speak with patients during hours that your practice is closed, you

may wish to partner with other physicians in the community to offer patients extended coverage. Patients

will appreciate knowing there is a physician available to help them no matter the time of day or night.
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4. When patients call your practice, can they speak directly with a nurse or physician? Will the nurse orphysician return their call promptly? How soon do you return calls and address patient issues?

Listen to your patients. Are they asking to speak to a nurse right away or within a certain time frame? Does

your practice have the resources to offer this service? Are patients upset if they are unable to speak with the

nurse or physician? If this is a problem area for your practice, you may wish to consider how you can better

meet this patient expectation (e.g., set aside a certain time during the day for the nurse and/or physician toreturn calls in a prompt manner).

5. Do you offer to call or send prescriptions directly to the pharmacy so that patients can pick them upwithout having to wait?

You can save your patients time by calling, faxing or sending prescriptions electronically to the pharmacy.

A patient who does not feel well truly appreciates being able to pick up his or her prescription from the

pharmacy without first dropping off the paper prescription and then waiting for at least 20 minutes while the

pharmacy fills the prescription.

6. Do you accept credit cards, debit cards and automated clearinghouse (ACH) debits to facilitate

patients payments due?

When you offer patients a selection of payment methods, patients may be more likely to pay their balance

and will appreciate the convenience.

7. Do you offer online medical consultations (e-visits)?

Online medical consultations, also known as e-visits, are Web-based visits between the physician and an

established patient through secure electronic mail. Established patients are able to present non-urgent

clinical questions about medication, treatment and diagnostic alternatives or request non-urgent medicalconsultations from their physicians. These convenient medical consultations save patients time and allow

patients to have a visit with their physician from anywhere at any time. Health insurers are increasingly

reimbursing physicians for e-visits with patients. Patients who do not have e-visit benefit coverage throughtheir health insurer can still use this service on a cash basis and are able to submit the receipt to their

medical flexible spending accounts (FSA) or health savings accounts (HSA) for possible reimbursement.

Practice Management Center resource tip:

You can learn more about this new patient convenience and whether its right for your practice by

reading the American Medical Association (AMA) Practice Management Center*

educational

resource Online medical consultations: Connecting physicians with patients. Visit the AMA

Practice Management Center Web site at www.ama-assn.org/go/pmc to view this resource.

* The AMA Practice Management Center is a resource of the AMA Private Sector Advocacy unit.
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8. Do you offer education to help your patients understand their bills?

The AMA encourages you and your practice staff to involve and educate your patients about medicaltreatment decisions as well as health insurer and payer payment policies and procedures. Industry trends

indicate that both payers and employers are shifting more of the responsibility and cost of health care

treatment and payment to the patient. In response to this shift, it would benefit your practice to proactively

consider either establishing or revising your payment and collection policies and enhancing patienteducation about these policies.

Practice Management Center resource tip:

Visit the AMA Practice Management Center Web site at www.ama-assn.org/go/pmc to accesspatient educational resources, such as Helping your patients understand their billing and

payment responsibilities and Understanding your health insurance policy and payment

practices.

9. Does your practice have a Web site? Does your Web site offer online appointment scheduling andconvenient access to patient registration and other patient forms?

Web-based appointment scheduling allows patients to book their own appointments via the Internet 24

hours a day seven days a week. This will facilitate the appointment scheduling process by freeing up

practice staff time spent on answering calls to schedule appointments and will save your patients time as

well.

Your Web site can also offer convenience to patients by offering new patient registration forms to complete

and submit online prior to their appointments. This capability will eliminate the need for patients to arrive15 minutes before their first appointment to complete such paperwork. Your practice will also be relieved of

the administrative burden of obtaining and entering this data at the time of the visit.

You can also keep your patients well informed of various practice policies, such as patient financial

responsibility; appointment cancellation; privacy, services and procedures performed, by posting these

policies on your Web site.

10.Do you survey your patients to assess how well your practice is meeting their needs?

You can use patient surveys to obtain your patients genuine opinions about your practice, including the

appearance, comfort, patient flow, wait time and patient interaction with the physician and practice staff.

Patient surveys uncover patients appraisals of their unmet needs. You can identify any bottlenecks inpatient flow by asking your patients about their wait times, which begin when they enter the office and end

when they leave (including the time they are in the waiting area and the exam room). Patients willappreciate having the opportunity to confidentially express both their concerns and satisfaction and offertheir ideas for improvement. Be sure to address the survey results by implementing improvements to your

practice.
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Questions or concerns about practice management issues?

AMA members and their practice staff can e-mail the AMA Practice Management Center at

[email protected] for assistance.

For additional information and resources, there are three easy ways to contact the AMA Practice

Management Center:

Call (800) 621-8335 and ask for the AMA Practice Management Center

Fax information to (312) 464-5541

Visit www.ama-assn.org/go/pmc to access the AMA Practice Management Center Web site

ACCMA members and their practice staff can e-mail the ACCMA [email protected] for assistance.

For additional information and resources, there are three easy ways to contact ACCMA:

Call (510) 654-5383

Fax information to (510) 654-8959

Visit www.accma.org to access the ACCMA Web site
mailto:[email protected]://www.ama-assn.org/go/pmcmailto:[email protected]://www.accma.org/http://www.accma.org/mailto:[email protected]://www.ama-assn.org/go/pmcmailto:[email protected]

patient satisfaction (1)

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