A Visit to One of Your Employed Physicians May be the First Exposure Patients will have with Your Hospital. What Kind of “Patient Experience” will They have?



Steve Wilkins

Guest Post by Steve Wilkins
Now that over 50% of physicians are employed by hospitals, this is question that is on the minds of progressive hospital executive teams. With good reason. Patient-reported outcomes, including satisfaction and loyalty, are going to play an increasing role in determining how much hospitals and physicians are paid. This means that astute hospital marketers will be able to build a strong business case for investing in programs aimed at creating superlative ambulatory and inpatient experiences for patients.

But Our Physicians Already Have High Patient Satisfaction And Loyalty Scores

Health care executives should take little comfort in the high patient satisfaction and loyalty ratings found uniformly with just about every physician. Generally speaking, “one can assume that the quality of care is, actually, worse than surveys of patient satisfaction (suggest)”according to Avedis Donabedian, MD, the father of today’s quality movement. Donabedian goes on to say that “patients are, in fact, overly patient; they put up with unnecessary discomforts and grant their doctors the benefit of every doubt, until deficiencies in care are too manifest to be overlooked. “

Just look at the quality of physician-patient communication, a key ingredient of the “patient experience” in the physician’s office.

• In only 26% of the visits are patients allowed to complete their opening statement (agenda) without interruption (by the doctor); in 37% the physicians interrupted; and in 37% physician never asked about the patient’s visit agenda.
• Studies suggest that patients do not express their health concerns, expectations or opinions in up to 75 percent of physician visits principally because their doctor never asked.
• Primary care physicians typically spend less than 60 seconds informing patients how to take new medications…or why.
• Primary care physicians and patient disagree about the diagnosis, treatment, and cause/severity of their condition over 50% of the time.
• Over 50% of patients walk out of their doctor’s office not understanding what they were told, including why or how to take their medications.

For their part, patients today are hard pressed to rate the effectiveness of their relationship with their doctor. The evidence conclusively shows that poor physician-patient communications is the norm rather than the exception. As such, most patients do not appreciate all the ways in which their doctor could in fact do a better job communicating with them.

Why Is Any Of This Important?

Simple. In the near future, your hospital and physicians will be paid according to things like how well they communicate with patients. More importantly, high quality physician-patient communications is highly correlated to improved outcomes, fewer hospital re-admits, fewer medical errors, improved patient compliance and increased patient satisfaction and loyalty.

So if you marketing team is looking for a simple and effective position strategy, consider improving the way your physicians and patients talk to each other. This strategy is so simple no one else in your market will be able to figure out what you are doing. But that’s OK…because your patients will sure see the know!

Steve Wilkins, MPH is the author of Mind the Gap.  His posts appear regularly on Better Health Network, KevinMD.com  and the Wall Street Journal Online Edition.   Mr. Wilkins, and his company Smart Health Messaging, focus on developing evidence-based solutions for improving the quality of communications between physicians and patients...and in so doing, improve safety and outcomes, increase adherence and satisfaction and reduce costs. www.healthecommunications.wordpress.com

Keeping Your Brand Healthy After Physician Integration: Part II

Health systems that ignore the implications of physician integration to the organization’s brand do so at their own peril. Hundreds of doctors in an employed physician structure can produce hundreds of thousands of patient visits in a year – each visit shaping and reinforcing the organization’s brand reputation.

Without an explicit strategy for creating and delivering a brand-defined experience in physician practices, health systems run the risk of developing a brand reputation they don’t want – formed from inconsistency of service, customer indifference, fragmented care, complex processes, poor medical care.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. The key question for health care executives is how to leverage investments in physician integration to increase total brand equity – to build a powerful, differentiated brand presence and to drive growth from a core positioning platform.

To do so, we must first understand brand as a central and foundational underpinning of competitive strategy. Brands are potent business-building assets for driving growth, engaging customers, building profitability. As you develop and evolve the integrated physician structure, key issues regarding brand and business building strategies should be addressed from the beginning.

So how can a health system turn a potential brand liability into an advantage?

• Determine your unique brand value proposition. How you plan to create and deliver value to current and prospective customers through the fully integrated physician practice is fundamental to long term success. What significant customer-centered benefits (more timely appointments, better coordinated care, personalized service, best in class physician talent, etc.) will your patients gain as a result of the integration strategy?
• Agree on brand identity. Names may be about egos, but brands are about business. The right brand identity should, first and foremost, ease the selection process for your customers. Brand identity for the physician group should be chosen in the context of the health system’s strategic positioning and growth goals, as well as its overall brand building strategy.
• Create brand alignment across operating, clinical and marketing systems, and build a discipline to channel investments into those things that matter most.
• Hardwire customer service, operating and patient care processes to ‘deliver’ on the brand. Patient experience is born through brand activation, a process whereby the brand value proposition is translated and transformed into actionable principles, features, service standards and behaviors. Remember that brand reputation is built primarily through customer experience.
• Enhance brand performance. Establish and monitor key metrics regarding growth, revenue, profitability, brand awareness, brand preference, customer advocacy and staff engagement. Identify growth opportunities in key segments, markets, channels. Address barriers that may limit the power of your brand to move market share.

The mantra for health systems seeking leverage from their physician integration investments is simple. Build the brand. Build the business.