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Patient satisfaction is one of the most important measures that hospitals and healthcare facilities strive to meet. Technology is an important component of patient satisfaction, but it is quite easy to integrate and positively affects patient satisfaction. By applying the right practices, your hospital or healthcare facility can utilize technology in helpful ways and improve patients’ experience. Here are ways to utilize technology to increase patient satisfaction.
Providing Transparency and Communication
Patients appreciate receiving current and detailed news, so they tend to be more satisfied with the care they receive when they receive timely updates regarding their conditions. One of the easiest ways to increase patient satisfaction is by providing transparency and proper communication.
This can be achieved through traditional methods, such as hospitals posting information in waiting rooms or on their websites, or by utilizing technology such as email newsletters and social media to communicate with patients. For instance, patient relationship management software plays an important role in communication and transparency. It allows healthcare facilities to connect with patients through a mobile interface and serve as a repository of data that is easily accessible to healthcare workers.
Establishing More Culturally Aware Care
One of the best ways to improve patient satisfaction is by establishing more culturally aware care. Healthcare facilities should be aware of the culture and values of every different part of their population. They should strive to provide better healthcare consistent with their community’s culture. Examples of culturally appropriate treatments include combining traditional practices, such as acupuncture or stress management techniques, alongside modern technologies, such as computerized cognitive behavior therapy (CBT).
Other tech-enabled practices include using sensors to measure patients’ health and providing them with nutritional information, which can help encourage healthy eating habits. Additionally, it is important to note that some aspects of health care can cause concern in certain cultures, such as screenings for cardiovascular problems or cancer due to cultural taboos. By integrating these into universal healthcare practices, your facility can improve patient satisfaction while maintaining cultural sensitivity.
Providing Inclusive Care
Providing inclusive care is another factor that can improve patient satisfaction. Common examples of inclusive care include:
- Providing personal care services, such as hygiene and grooming, to patients that cannot leave their bed
- Using technology to allow patients to remain active in remote locations
- Providing transportation for illness-related appointments such as chemotherapy treatments for cancer patients.
Your healthcare facility can use technology to provide inclusive care. For example, a telemedicine platform allows people with certain medical conditions to attend virtual appointments with doctors who can prescribe medications and discuss their conditions. Another example is mobile or wearable fitness trackers, which can give patients information on their health that they could not access before and help them track their progress.
Minimizes Problems With Medication Error
A major factor that can decrease patient satisfaction is medication error, which can occur for a number of different reasons. Technology is an important component of reducing medication errors as it helps the organization, storage, and distribution of medications. For example, medication administration software can provide healthcare workers with all the information they need to give patients the correct drugs and provide tracking tools that allow doctors to check if a patient has taken their medicine.
Another way your hospital or healthcare facility can reduce medication errors is by incorporating the clinical decision support tool, which provides real-time analyses of the decision-making process and helps eliminate those that are found to be incorrect. Using technology in these ways can improve patient satisfaction and decrease medication errors.
Improves Health and Wellness
Patient satisfaction can also be improved by using technology to improve overall health and wellness. This can be done through mobile apps that provide users with more nutrition, diet, exercise, and mental health information. These apps can easily track their fitness goals, diet plans, or other health-related activities. Additionally, your facility could implement a wearable health tracking device that patients use to record their vital signs or provide healthcare workers with the ability to use sensors when measuring certain aspects of a patient’s health.
Conclusion
The five ways presented above are only a few examples of how your hospital or healthcare facility can encourage patient satisfaction while incorporating technology in innovative ways. By taking time to design and implement a technology strategy to improve patient experience, you can help provide superior care that improves your patients’ overall satisfaction.
