Electronic Health Reporter

Your patients should always be a top priority when working in healthcare and when you’re a healthcare provider. You must be able to meet their needs and work toward improving their health and wellness over time.

It’s in your best interest to continue to find ways for enhancing how you run your practice and making sure you and your staff are on the same page. There are some best practices you can apply to ensure you meet this goal.

Learn about four steps to offering even better care for your patients so you and they can have a positive experience.

1. Actively Listen

Start by asking the right questions as soon as your patient enters your office. You not only need to know what to ask but then take the time to actively listen to the response. Show respect by letting them talk and then summarizing or repeating back what you heard. Take notes and make sure that you document what is said and how they’re feeling. Offer even better care for your patients by providing emotional support when it’s appropriate and expressing gratitude for them coming to you for their healthcare needs.

2. Do Your Homework & Be Knowledgeable

When you work in healthcare you should always be knowledgeable and up to speed about the latest and greatest technologies, products, and treatments out there. Always do your homework to make sure you know about a wide range of solutions and treatments from medications to what the best hearing aids are on the market. The patient is coming to you because they trust that you’ll be able to appropriately and successfully address their needs and find a treatment plan that works.

3. Involve Family or Friends

It can also be very useful and beneficial to get the patient’s family or friends involved in their care as well. While they may hesitate at first, you might want to encourage and push it if you feel like it will be good for them. Sometimes it can be daunting to be all alone when you receive news about your health or are dealing with a particular health condition or ailment. Make it a point to get whoever you feel needs and should be involved in the discussion made aware of the situation so that you can work together to treat your patient in the best way possible. It may even require that you coordinate care with other providers as well.

4. Create the Ideal Patient Experience

Another step to offering even better care for your patients is to look at the overall picture of the patient experience. Improve it by cutting down waiting times, having an attractive and comfortable office to visit, and making sure you always follow up and show you care. It may also be that you start to offer telehealth services at your clinic if patients are unable to visit you in person for any number of reasons. Always be thinking of ways you can do better in this area and ask for feedback often so you know what you’re doing right and can identify additional opportunities for improvement.