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Self-service plays a vital role in patient satisfaction
“Surveys by Gartner and other firms show that consumers strongly desire access to self-service options in healthcare.”
~Jim Dowling, HealthCare IT News
Patient service requests are an important aspect of a patient’s hospital journey. Patients are often in a challenging situation and setting expectations is important. In most instances, a patient’s first point of is with a Nurse who can create a lasting first impression. It’s often their responsiveness that determines if a patient leaves the facility feeling they had a positive experience.
Fulfilling patient service requests includes both clinical and non-clinical tasks. With limited time, a full schedule of clinical work and staff shortages, the Nursing team has a big hill to climb. One way to overcome the challenges of fewer staff and greater patient expectations is to automate patient service requests. Technology has evolved to create space for a less passive, more engaged approach, so it makes sense that self-service is part of that evolution. While the human touch is critical, automated self-services ease the burden on Nurses and help patients feel more in charge. With automated self-service options you lower costs by scheduling resources more efficiently, and create patient trust at the same time.
Bringing patient service requests into the hospital room
Patients are, after all, healthcare consumers, and they reasonably expect to use technology during their stay. Health tech is ubiquitous, especially with younger patient demographics. These groups have experience with check-in kiosks, online appointment scheduling, streaming entertainment and digital health records. While there are plenty of self-service options outside of the room, there are few self-service patient options inside the room. An integration system that includes service fulfillment at the bedside offers patients an additional layer of convenience and comfort.
A pillar of integration solutions like MediaCare is the Service Request app, one of a variety of patient-centric interactive modules.
To help administrators and department heads allocate resources, MediaCare includes detailed reporting. Armed with this information, healthcare providers have immediate data for modeling improved service experiences.
Your patient service request app should include detailed reporting
Empower patients with choices
Patients can use their bedside interactive TV or digital whiteboard to make non-clinical requests. For example, they can ask for automated prescription fulfillment through the hospital pharmacy, or request to see a chaplain or other spiritual leader. They can schedule things like a pet therapy session, if available, and room cleaning. They can request a telemedicine video call with a clinician or order a meal from their bedside. If they need a blanket or pillow, they can send a request. As a request is made, a message is automatically sent to the appropriate department and that department is notified through their messaging system. When patients receive an acknowledgement that the request was received, then departments can schedule timely fulfillment.
Surveys and staff support
To make sure things are running smoothly, include automated service and satisfaction surveys to benchmark quality initiatives. Surveys can be set up to use branching logic for automated distribution so you can target specific departments to measure performance. The Support Terminal in MediaCare helps nursing staff as well, so Nurses can order patient equipment for delivery, schedule transportation and notify EVS that a room is ready for cleaning. Configurations for the service request app are endless, and can be tailored to fit your facility’s needs and standards. Branding, colors, layouts and on-the-fly editing capabilities are all a part of MediaCare for a better patient (and staff) experience.