Health and Medical Customer Satisfaction And Retention Strategies Report Discussion

Health and Medical Customer Satisfaction And Retention Strategies Report Discussion

Patient satisfaction is an important and commonly used indicator for measuring the quality in health care. Patient satisfaction affects clinical outcomes, patient retention, and medical malpractice claims. It affects the timely, efficient, and patient-centered delivery of quality health care. Patient satisfaction is thus a proxy but a very effective indicator to measure the success of doctors and hospitals. This article discusses as to how to ensure patient satisfaction in dermatological practice.

Keywords: Patient, satisfaction, customer, service, quality
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INTRODUCTION
The practice and system of medicine has evolved over centuries. There are certain significant developments which have taken place in the health systems in recent times. Chief among them are:

the establishment of corporate hospitals equipped with the latest facilities

the advent of third-party payers (insurance companies, governments, companies, etc.); increasing awareness among patients

availability of information through the internet, and higher expectations of patient care, and finally

the increasing litigations for unsatisfying results.

All these factors have resulted in a challenging profile for the health care industry – away from the traditional concept of a noble profession toward a service industry.

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SPECIAL FEATURES OF DERMATOLOGICAL PRACTICE
Certain features of dermatological practice in relation to the above mentioned factors, certain specific features of dermatological practice should be emphasised:

Many dermatological disorders are characterized by chronicity. Thus adherence to topical and/or systemic therapies for a long period of time is essential for successful management. It is estimated that more than one-third of patients fail to take medications as prescribed, especially for chronic disorders.[1] This may lead to poor compliance and further to treatment failure and thereby to poor patient satisfaction.

People may come to dermatologists with high expectations of a definitive cure for all their skin disorders. Experience tells us that it is not possible for us to guarantee such solutions. This leads to a huge gap between the service provider and the service seeker, leading to decreased patient satisfaction.

Poor communication with physicians, lack of empathy, and the chronicity of many of the disorders lead to dissatisfaction.

The patients, particularly the youth, are keen to have quick solutions to their problems and therefore are more likely to be dissatisfied. People aged between 35 and 49 years, who form a major part of the new consumer cohort, have the lowest patient satisfaction scores compared with other age groups.

Recent fascination for esthetic treatments has changed the scenario to a large extent. These “patients” who are otherwise healthy have a higher level of expectation. Esthetic dermatology care is also delivered by other players such as beauty clinics and nonmedical professionals, who may not be necessarily bound by the ethical rules of the medical profession. They often resort to exaggerated claims, prominent advertisements leading to heightened expectations and later disappointments.

A dermatologist’s professional job satisfaction and a patient’s satisfaction need not necessarily complement each other. We rate our job satisfaction by our professional knowledge, attending CMEs, conferences, mastering new skills, and keeping pace with new technologies. All these factors are not always relevant to the patient. Ulitmately however, whether a patient is happy with a doctor’s approach depends on different nonclinical factors like listening to him or her, promptness of services, and how we talk and gesture.

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ASSESSMENT OF QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE
In a major report published in 2001 (“Crossing the Quality Chasm”, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) set forth six aims for a quality health care system patient safety: (a) safe; (b) equitable; (c) evidence based; (d) timely; (e) efficient; and (f) patient centered. The latter three factors directly influence patient satisfaction.[2] This article focuses on patient satisfaction, its assessment, and its effects on health care delivery, particularly with reference to dermatological and esthetic practice.

Patient as a consumer
Under these circumstances, would it be more appropriate to address the patients as “consumers”? The word “consumer” is derived from the Latin word “consumere” which literally means one who acquires commodities or services. Similarly, the word customer is also defined as “a person who purchases goods or services.”[3] Today the patient sees himself as a buyer of health services. Once this concept is accepted, then there is a need to recognize that every patient has certain rights, which puts a special emphasis on to the delivery of quality health care,

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

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Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

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Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource