Background
One of the major points of differences between products and services is that we can test a product before actually buying it. The same is not always true for services. In services, unless one uses that particular service and service provider, one cannot be sure of its quality. In such cases, the reputation of the organization plays a decisive role in the success of a hospital.
Why build a reputation?
Like any other service industry, reputation plays a very important role in the healthcare industry also. Studies have proved that when people are looking for a reliable healthcare provider for their medical requirements, about 93% of the patients pay serious attention to the reviews given by earlier patients. Not only that, building a reputation helps a hospital attract talent and also provides protection against litigation. In case a patient is not able to make a decision, regarding which hospital to choose, decisions are made basis the hospital’s reputation. Given this scenario, it becomes very important for hospitals to build a reputation of offering top-class medical services and other related facilities.
How to build a hospital reputation?
To create a good reputation, it is important to offer good medical services, but what is equally more important is to manage online reviews, recover unhappy patients, and have positive communication with the patients.
To build a reputation, hospitals first need to create a positive mindset towards caring for patients and their family members. Given below are some very basic, but important tips to achieve the desired goal.
1. Listen to patients and their problems: Before starting the treatment, it’s very important to listen to the patient about how is he/she feeling. The hospital staff needs to patiently hear their problems and make every effort to make the patient comfortable.
2.Think of them as customers, not patients: This is the age of marketing, and to succeed in any business, it’s important to pay attention to customers and build relations with them. The same holds true for hospitals also. It’s important that the hospital staff treats them not as patients, who would come and go. They need to be treated as customers, who is availing of the services. And once a patient goes home, healthy and satisfied, he/she is the best brand ambassador for your hospital.
3.Empathize with Patients: When a patient visits a hospital, he/she is definitely in some kind of discomfort and is naturally disturbed due to that. In an attempt to get rid of that discomfort, the patient is often very impulsive and behaves strangely. In such cases, it’s important that the hospital staff empathizes with them and behaves in a calm manner. The staff needs to be very humble while dealing with patients, especially older patients,
4.Give the patient a way to connect with you: The points mentioned above are all related to soft skills and can be termed as ‘software’ of a hospital. But this ‘software’ needs to be supported with ‘hardware’ as well. In today/s situation, it’s very important that the hospital provides its patients with a tool so that they can stay in touch with them on regular basis. A mobile app, like ‘Doctorz’, can help a hospital stay in t0uch with their patients on a 24x7 basis and provide medical assistance in case of emergency, even from a distance.
Reputation and Profitability:
Both these terms are related to each other. Once a hospital is able to create and sustain a good reputation, then it is able to attract more patients. This helps a hospital improves its revenue and also its profitability.
How to increase the profitability of a hospital?
In today’s time, to sustain a hospital and keep offering top-class medical facilities, it’s important that a hospital maintains decent profitability. Given below are some ways by which hospitals can keep a check on their expenses and increase their profitability.
Keep track of all of the spending: To increase profitability, a hospital has two options – increase their fees and other charges or cut down on their expenses. In this age of competition, increasing fees is not a viable option, so the best way for the hospital is to identify all expenses heads and avoid wasteful expenses.
Keep Eye on vaccine stocks:
One of the major expenses head in a hospital is the stock of vaccines. Since vaccines expire and prone to break-up, it’s important to maintain only that much inventory so that your work is not hampered. This calls for a ‘Just-in-Time’ kind of inventory management and stock taking. An app like ‘Doctorz’ can help you manage vaccine stick and reduce the overall administrative burden. It can also track vaccination rates, forecast, and demand, and order the required vaccines on time.
Keep Track of all consumption:
Just like vaccines, it’s important to keep a track of all consumables items – from medicines to syringes and even non-medical items. The hard reality is that each item counts, and adds to the cost.
Use a Clinic Management Software:
Finally in this age of technology, to cut costs, and to minimize human errors, it’s very important to adopt a technology in the form of Clinical Management Software (CMS). A CMS like ‘Doctorz” can help hospitals in their routine activities like scheduling appointments, verifying insurance eligibility, verifying medical history, inventory management, billing, and much more.
Conclusion
In today’s time and age, reputation plays a very important role in the success of any organization, irrespective of whether it’s a manufacturing industry or a service industry. This holds true for the healthcare industry as well. Hospitals with a good reputation enjoy several benefits, including being able to attract more patients and better medical talents. This has a direct relationship with the profitability of the hospital. A hospital with a good reputation has better profitability. Similarly, a hospital that controls its expenses and uses modern technology is not only profitable but enjoys the reputation of being modern, yet patient-friendly.
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