Like all industries, the product here is the ‘quality of the patient centred care’. Patient care starts with the first encounter which the patient has with the health care facility staff

Like all industries, the product here is the ‘quality of the patient centred care’. Patient care starts with the first encounter which the patient has with the health care facility staff, this includes the clinical teams, administrative teams; in fact, everyone has interaction with a patient (customer) including the auxiliary staff, domestic and security staff etc. All have a part to play in delivering outstanding customer care.

In a competitive market where financial resources are limited, many of the popular approaches to improving the patient experience involve large capital investments in such things as hotel style amenities and expensive technology.

Healthcare is not like other businesses and patients are unlike other kinds of customers. ‘Customers’ are generally well people who enjoy elevated status by virtue of their potential to purchase goods or services. Patients, on the other hand, are not well and their status is greatly reduced by illness or injury that renders them vulnerable, frightened, often in pain, medicated, exhausted and confused. In spite of these limiting factors, patients sometimes have to make important, often complex, decisions in a short time frame. The ‘goods’ they are purchasing are a return to health and the ‘services’ they seek often require an unspeakable level of trust in their ‘service provider’.

Patients’ perceptions of the quality of the healthcare they receive are highly dependent on the quality of their interactions with their healthcare clinician and team. There is a wealth of research data that supports the benefits of effective communication and health outcomes for patients and healthcare teams. The connection that a patient feels with his or her clinician can ultimately improve their health mediated through participation in their care, adherence to treatment, and patient self-management.

Yet, it is estimated that one-third of adults with chronic illnesses underused their prescription medication due to cost concerns; yet they fail to communicate this information to their physician. Another study found that less than half of hospitalised patients could identify their diagnoses or the names of their medication(s) at discharge, an indication of ineffective communication with their physicians.

A clinician may conduct as many as 150,000 patient interviews during a typical career. If viewed as a healthcare procedure, the patient interview is the most commonly used procedure that the clinician will employ. Yet communication training for clinicians and other healthcare professionals historically has received far less attention throughout the training process than have other clinical tasks.

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this programme you will be able to:

• At the end of this programme you will be able to:
• Master technichues in getting new cutomers/patients and retaining exciting ones.
• Increase your Return of Investment by quality care.
• Demonstrate how to become customer driven
• Reduce complaints
• Increase your productivity.