Meeting or exceeding patients' expectations

Patients expect more than ever before. It is necessary to go beyond making an accurate diagnosis and providing a treatment. Patients expect that as a given, but when you exceed their expectations, they will become raving fans of you and your practice. By managing a few of your patients’ expectations, you will reap the benefits of loyal patients who truly enjoy being part of your practice. Exceeding patients’ expectations will provide you with enjoyment from caring for patients, increase your patient online reputation, elevate you to the top of the Google search, potentially reduce burnout, and reduce the necessity for pajama time—readers know what that means.

1. Physicians are expected to deliver quality at every interaction with patients and their practices. Quality goes beyond diagnosis and treatment. It is quality in everything you and your staff do. From the first interaction with the patient, when they call the office to schedule an appointment, to leaving the office after the doctor-patient encounter. It is quality in every area of your practice. In this era of fast food, Amazon deliveries in 24 hours, and AI offering advice to patients within seconds, patients' expectations are higher today than in the past. We need to wrap quality service around, like providing reasonable access to care, seeing patients on time, and making every effort to exceed patients’ expectations.

2. Provide solutions to problems. If we don’t, the patient will go somewhere else. There are three types of problems our customers expect us to solve: complaints, needs, and non-clinical problems. Complaints are obvious. A patient calls with a complaint and expects you to fix it while they are on the phone. Second, there is the need-type problem. For example, an existing patient has an acute problem and needs an appointment ASAP. They can’t wait days or weeks for an appointment, nor do they want to be sent to the ER or the urgent care center. You solve their problem by providing access to care that meets, if not exceeds, their expectations. Third, there is the non-clinical type of problem. A good example might be that a patient is asking for directions to the lab or an imaging center. You can offer the patient directions, or someone in the office can walk them to their destination. If the last option is chosen, you have exceeded the patient’s expectations, which will likely endear the patient to the practice. They may share the nice gesture your office has made, which will create goodwill and positive word of mouth for your practice.

3. We are expected to be accountable. When a patient has a problem, complaint, or request, you must take ownership of the situation. You don’t make excuses or pass it off to someone else because it is not your department. That doesn’t mean you are the one who takes care of this complaint or request. When a patient is admitted to the hospital and is in the room, and notices that there is no toilet paper, the patient tells the nurse about the problem, who says they will take care of it. Now, if the nurse reports the situation to housekeeping, the problem may be solved in 30-60 minutes, but that’s not good enough. The nurse who owns the problem goes to the employee restroom, takes a roll of toilet paper to the patient room, and quickly solves the problem. This is a good example of being accountable.

4. Be consistent. That means being good all the time, not just some of the time. Imagine a new patient calls the office, and the receptionist is polite, helpful, and enthusiastic, using the caller’s name twice during the call. The patient will likely feel they will receive good care when they arrive for their first appointment. Consistency comes from doing it right the first time and every time after.

Bottom Line: The four major expectations, quality, consistency, problem solving in the non-clinical context, and accountability, you cannot just meet; you must exceed them. Do this, and you will find yourself creating many more delighted and satisfied patients, your patient satisfaction scores will increase, you may experience less burnout, and you may just get home for dinner.

Neil Baum, MD, a professor of clinical urology at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Dr. Baum is the author of several books, including the best-selling book Marketing Your Medical Practice: Ethically, Effectively, and Economically, which has sold over 225,000 copies and has been translated into Spanish.