How Medical Practices Are Building More Responsive Patient Communication Systems

Patient communications are one of those things that keep or break a medical practice's reputation. People are expected to hear back when they call for an appointment, hear back about test results, and reach out to someone and get a response regarding payments. Yet the practices that are thriving are not those with top-of-the-line systems or the biggest budgets. They're the ones that have figured out how to maintain the status of consistently responsive enough to matter.

Yet it's not only in a response to patient expectations that such improvements in communication is necessary. Lower no-show rates, improved patient satisfaction surveys, and even improved clinical outcomes result from patients receiving appropriate answers; they're more likely to follow through with care when communicating easily with their medical team.

Multi-Channel Communication That's Actually Effective

There are two specific changes that medical practices need to start embracing when it comes to patient communication. Gone are the days when patients feel comfortable knowing a phone call is the only option. Some prefer appointment reminders via text, others have questions they'd like to submit through the patient portal, and especially younger patients expect to communicate with their other service providers in like capacity.

Practices have struggled to keep up with this multitasking expectation without dropping the ball. It's easy to add text messaging and a patient portal to existing communications but someone has to monitor those responses and get back to patients in a timely manner. The practices that are making this work have designated team members whose job it is to keep up with various communication options. Companies like My Mountain Mover are helping practices maintain consistent communications across multiple channels without adding stress to the on-site team.

Response Time Expectations That Meet Current Standards

When waiting for a phone call back from the medical office was a 24-hour preferred response time, nothing else mattered, except maybe your insurance company. Today, however, patients are comparing response rates to their banks, their insurance companies, their internet providers, and most of those companies are responding immediately or within an hour.

Medical practices today are adjusting their internal standards to meet newly developed expectations. Some hope to return calls within two hours if they happen during working hours and others have differentiated communication setups for urgent inquiries versus scheduling questions. The caveat, however, remains in having adequate staffing and coverage to meet whatever expectations the practices set; the last thing anyone wants is an unresponsive practice that promises excellent ratings within their systems.

Proactive Instead of Reactive Communication

The problem patients experience today is feeling as though they must chase down information for which they already inquired. Patients are grateful when the office reaches out about test results as soon as they're in rather than making them wait another day; they're grateful for appointment reminders with enough notice so people can plan their time instead of waiting until the day before without any effort; and they're grateful when staff check on recovery progress after surgery.

Proactive communication takes time and requires someone to understand what needs to be relayed and by when. They must have access to the practice management software to know when results come in and when follow-up is due. For busy practices, this is where it usually falls apart, staff too busy managing daily concerns forget about proactive outreach.

Real-Time Changes

Patients hate showing up for appointments only to find out their doctor is running an hour late or someone forgot about a scheduling conflict. The most successful practices are able to communicate real-time changes as they happen, if appointments fall too close together, staff will text their patients before they even leave work.

This requires someone monitoring the schedule as it gets filled throughout the day. It also necessitates a team who has enough bandwidth to reach out in real-time. It's not sexy work but it does wonders for a quality patient experience. People can handle delays and changes when they're made aware of it. They cannot handle wasted time or feel as though no one cared enough about them to give them a head's up.

After-Hours Accessibility Without Staff Burnout

The most complicated part about responsive communication systems is figuring out how to provide after-hours accessibility without burning out the on-site team. Patients don't stop having questions at 5 PM, but that doesn't mean the front desk staff want to take calls at 8 PM on a Tuesday.

Some practices have after-hours answering services but they tend to be impersonal and without real-time information needed for effective responses. The practices that are successful here have remote solutions that allow for after-hours solutions mirroring quality daytime assistance. These practices extend their availability without requiring staff members on-site after-hours or on weekends.

Consistent Follow Through on Patient Requests

Being responsive and proactive isn't enough if the team does not follow through with what's requested or needed. If a patient is seeking a referral, they should not have to call three times back to see if it went through. If a patient calls asking records be sent elsewhere, it should happen without them having to remind someone else down the line.

Such consistency requires effective systems and adequate staffing capability so that requests can happen in a timely manner. The successful practices here have established systems as to what happens when something is asked of them; patients take note when things go right the first time, and much more when their requests go ignored.