How is Your Talent Strategy Shaping Patient Experience?
By John Alana Director, Global Solutions
John Alana takes a closer look at the impact of making the right talent decisions in healthcare.
Hospitals are businesses, and, like all businesses, their success or failure depends on whether their patients (customers) choose them or one of their competitors across the street. But when you’re talking about life-saving treatment, over the best place to grab pizza or have your car valeted, the stakes get much higher. Bad patient experiences spread in a matter of a few clicks on social media. This means that delivering a great patient experience is not only the right thing to do, it’s business critical. The big question is then, what drives a great patient experience and how can you stand out for all the right reasons? Is it having comfortable waiting rooms or the right food in your cafeteria? Is it having enough accessible parking? This stuff matters, but the number one thing that is going to help you beat the competition is your people. Those clinical and support staff who engage with patients at each stage of the customer journey define how patients perceive your healthcare organization.
I explore the ways your strategic talent decisions can shape the patient experience, below.
Every Touchpoint Matters
When we talk about patient experience, we often jump right to the clinical team who provide their care. Did the doctor make the right diagnosis? Did a nurse provide proper after-care advice? But the truth is that patient experience starts way before and extends far past clinical support. From the very first call a customer makes into your contact center to the conversation that they have with the custodian who cleans their room, every member of your team leaves an impression. This becomes particularly important when we consider that it is these non-core, non-clinical services that are often serviced through an outsourced talent solution. Whether it’s a virtual call center provider or a far-reaching MSP program, it’s vital to look not only at cost savings and arbitrary KPIs but at aspects like retention and patient feedback to measure the success of an outsourced initiative. Talent providers can have a huge impact on patient experience, so choosing the right partner matters.
Smarter Business Decisions = Better Patient Care
When I talk to healthcare leaders about their goals, patient care and patient experience are often at the top of their list. This makes sense, it’s a people-focused industry with a life-changing impact – we want to ensure we help and support as many people as we can. However, the hard truth is that the wrong organizational decisions can lead to healthcare providers being unable to provide the levels of care they are aiming for. In other words, you have to get the business part right in order to provide the best possible experience for patients. When it comes to talent strategy, this means recognizing areas where external support and technology can enhance the care you provide and streamline internal processes. Creating an efficient, robust talent approach that provides access to the right people in the right places is crucial to patient experience.
Patient experience is more than a buzzword, it’s more than a nice value to have. It’s at the heart of every healthcare business. And talent is the biggest part of the patient experience picture. Why not take a closer look at your talent strategy and discover how you could become a healthcare provider of choice?