Contrary to popular belief, healthcare is a customer service industry. And the first key to providing great customer service is by taking a patient-centric perspective, which main focus is to help improve quality care provided to all patients for them to have better overall experience.
But the surge in healthcare demand results in unmanaged patient’s inquiries which increases frustration and ultimately makes them unsatisfied with the healthcare service. That is why there is so much importance in integrating customer care service in any healthcare organization.
A hospital or any healthcare facility may have the most skilled healthcare practitioners but without providing high quality patient experience, they aren’t likely to recommend your institution.
Most healthcare organizations aren’t aware that there are dedicated teams whose main function and focus is to provide quality customer care to patients. These teams usually consist of;
And the increasing demand for quality customer care makes hiring these teams challenging and sometimes expensive as more institutions are building their own healthcare customer care teams. As a result, most healthcare facilities do not know where to source representatives that are experts in this field with enough ability to cater patients in a nontransaction way.
Similar to other industries, building dedicated teams requires an operational budget. The cost for recruitment, hiring and training can be expensive especially if you want to create a team that will solely focus on patient service experience.
It is important to note that when building a team of patient care representatives, having the most skilled people is a must because poor customer service can be an indicator of a much bigger challenge in your hospital. Hence investing on creating these teams may mean expensive costs.
With limited staff and long queues, wait times are alway inevitable. But the traditional system’s way to resolve this is increasing in-house staff numbers to accommodate the surge which poses an enormous and expensive operational expense for healthcare organizations.
But dedicated patient support teams allow your core healthcare members to focus on patient and treatment related responsibilities because calls, emails, and other forms of inquiries will be addressed by this team, lessening your patient’s wait time because someone will respond solely for their concerns.
This also allows a smooth patient flow because they can book appointments in their own time and get updates without leaving the comfort of their own home. An outsourced customer care team is also available 24 hours a day.
No healthcare experience will be positive if the actual treatment and care your team member is providing is only half-focused efforts. With a team of customer care representatives, medical staff are kept informed of not only appointments but all relevant information they need to know before a patient arrives or visits your hospital.
They will be well guided through all necessary information throughout the patient’s journey resulting in patients feeling well taken care of and heard. Having this team in your structure makes every appointment more efficient and encourages building a better patient relationship.
In a survey, it states that 99% of patients agree that their satisfaction increased because of the hospital’s concierge service.
And since a team of customer care services manages non-clinical responsibilities to primarily focus on patient concerns prior, during and after the course of treatment, the benefits are four-fold; high patient satisfaction, streamlined patient flow, clinical efficiency and decrease in clinician burnout.
These teams work strategically by targeting critical areas that affect overall patient satisfaction.
If your healthcare company is looking to upgrade its customer services, here are some technologies you can incorporate to move forward:
Save your patients time by having them upload their relevant information in a cloud database (i.e. AdvancedMD, Clockwise.MD, etc). This gives doctors access to any information they need to know before the consultation. Context is provided and the doctor can get a head’s start on a diagnosis.
Integrate other apps such as Google calendar to remind them of upcoming consults, therapy sessions, medicine intakes, and other relevant details for their ongoing maintenance. These reminders ensure that the patient complies to the recommended treatment without the doctor or nurse forcing them into the necessary routine. It also reminds them of upcoming appointments that need to be made for complete and compliant treatment.
Instant messaging is a necessity in most service apps. Having this in your patient concierge app allows patients to directly contact their healthcare provider and have them answer questions when needed.
Integrate other apps such as Google calendar to remind them of upcoming consults, therapy sessions, medicine intakes, and other relevant details for their ongoing maintenance. These reminders ensure that the patient complies to the recommended treatment without the doctor or nurse forcing them into the necessary routine.
Patients can gain access to the healthcare facility’s social media accounts, email, and other real time methods of communication. This gives a better sense of connectivity between the two individuals, adding to the personalized aspect of the patient concierge support.
Main responsibility is to manage patient accounts. They have access to any information about claims, insurance records, and payment information.
Main point of contact for patients to book hospital and/or clinical appointments, answering inquiries, and ensuring all patient visits are properly documented.
Similar to a patient concierge, this team takes care of calls, emails, and other forms of inquiries. As a result, this lessens the patient’s wait time to get hold of your hospital.
All companies want to save money and stay within budget. In fact, in some areas of the United States, the high-cost labor involved in bringing in in-house seasoned individuals to maintain critical applications is extreme and out of the budget of most businesses. Outsourcing is the perfect affordable solution to save up to 70% on operational cost and still work with seasoned professionals.
Outsourcing has become a cost-effective way to stay on top of technology and offer superior communication for everyone involved.
A great outsourcing partner operates 24/7/365. This ensures that more work is being completed as compared to a regular 9 hour shift in-house staff.
Outsourcing health informatics welcomes in the creme de la creme of skilled professionals who can seamlessly perform RCM related tasks and can support cutthroat data analytics softwares and apps. They work round the clock like any other healthcare professionals with a similar 24/7 shift in a hospital.
In many cases, it is simply impossible for the HI team to have the skill and experts needed to handle all the various software and EHR applications. However, the right outsourcing partners can build a great HI team with required expertise and competencies that can stay up to date with the latest HI technologies. They can also ensure that the tools used by the HI team are streamlined with your company’s required software updates and versions.
Data confidentiality has never been more important for patient privacy. Medical professionals have been turning to blockchain technology and methods of data encryption to stop data breaches and compromised files. Health informatics stays compliant with health security rules, policies and all the other parameters needed to maintain patient privacy such as HIPAA, GDPR and DPA2012 compliant.
Infinit-O is a trusted global solutions partner that can help you successfully grow your business.
Curious on how to spot a great team? We’ve got you covered! Know these qualities and traits to help you build a great team!
| Job Title | Cost per In-house FTE ($ rate) | Cost per Infinit-O FTE ($ rate) |
% Savings per Month |
| Patient Accounts Representative (Voice) | $ 4,828.27 | $ 1,800.00 | 63% |
| Patient Concierge | $ 4,300.03 | $ 1,700.00 | 60% |
| Patient Support Representative | $ 4,300.03 | $ 1,700.00 | 60% |
| Job Title | No. of team members | Estimated Annual Cost Savings |
| Patient Accounts Representative (Voice) | 1 | $ 36,339.26 |
| Patient Concierge | 1 | $ 31,200.38 |
| Patient Support Representative | 1 | $ 31,200.38 |
NOTES:
A well-established People, Process, Technology, Security (PPTS) Pillars is one sure way to overcome the limited supply of workforce, improve the healthcare delivery system, innovate care technologies through automation tools and solutions, and fortify patient data security in agreement with clinician-patient confidentiality.
Having 4 pillars of success are key in only building a great and high-performing healthcare team.
Know more about Infinit-O’s 4 pillars of success and our secret in building a great, high-performing healthcare team.
To successfully grow your business and achieve your goals, it starts with proper planning and investing in the right resources. The following companies in the HC industry were able to identify their unique needs and sought help with the right partner who exactly knows how to address their demands.
We’ve gathered the following success stories so you can learn more about their outsourcing journey and how they were able to achieve their business objectives with the help of the right partner.
Infinit-O has been in the outsourcing industry for 15 years, creating long lasting partnerships and endless opportunities to small and medium businesses across the Healthcare, Finance and Accounting, Research and Development, and Customer Service industries.
Our vision is to help small and medium sized companies to grow and prosper by enabling them to experience the full benefits of partnering with an outsourcing company.
We build great teams for our partners through understanding their unique needs in order to help them achieve their business goals and the vision they have for their company. We have rendered a strong combination of business consultancy, process optimization, and outsourced services; all utilizing the latest technology to provide excellent value for our clients.
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We share 15 years of experience in navigating data privacy laws and regulations. We guarantee strict compliance from the best information security practices with up to date cybersecurity certifications because your data is in our care. At Infinit-O, we not only value your business but acknowledge the importance of information security especially in this digital age. To overcome customary challenges and build a better cybersecurity system that ultimately protects and secures data, we are certified and compliant with:
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Having an extensive and profound expertise in the finance and accounting industry, we’re here to help you build a great RCM team for your unique needs and promise the following key benefits:
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