The patient satisfaction scenario chosen involves a patient contacting a health plan customer service department but not being able to understand the representative as a result of lingual difficulties or other issues concerning communication between the representative and the particular patient. As a result, the patient was unable to receive assistance from the representative with respect to a matter of a health nature and most likely, a concern to the patient overall.
Three data elements that would be gathered to assist in evaluating the scenario and assisting with improving the particular scenario include: 1) The qualifications and competency of the representative, 2) A recording of the phone call to determine the reason why the patient could not understand the representative and 3) A record of the final outcome of the call. In relation to the first data element, the representative may have been inexperienced or had trouble trying to communicate to the patient as a result of their background or language difficulties.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Customer Satisfaction Improvement Plan".
By evaluating the competencies and qualifications of the representative, can be determined whether the issues were caused by professional areas requiring attention for the representative or because of personal requirements based on language differences or just a simple misunderstanding. Furthermore, the patient might be impaired or handicapped in some way that has no relation to the competencies and qualifications of the known representative (Ha, 2010). In relation to the second element, a recording of the phone call will provide a clearer and more transparent picture of why there were difficulties associated with the patient not understanding the representative. This also provides an unbiased view of the situation before any assumptions can be made. The third element focuses on what action the representative took to seek an appropriate outcome and whether the needs of the customer or patient were eventually catered for.
The CQI methods that would be used to develop the improvement plan would focus on customer relations and interactions, professional development of the healthcare associate and the implementation of more efficient procedures to handle difficult situations such as the described scenario. The plan for improvement would focus particularly on the development of procedures to help a healthcare representative deal with a patient who is having trouble trying to understand them and also initiating certain education programs that assist representatives in better taking care of patients even if there are failures in communication between the representative and the patient. Based on the following extract from Ha (2010), “A doctor’s communication and interpersonal skills encompass the ability to gather information in order to facilitate accurate diagnosis”, representatives including those who are medical practitioners need to be adequately trained in patient communication even if the patient is the main reason why there are communication lapses.
Three stakeholders in my team include a practitioner nurse assistant and administration assistant (who receives all patient calls and inquiries). Communication differs for each as the practitioner as the academic and theoretical knowledge to implement changes and patient plans, which then need to be communicated directly and assertively to the nurse assistant (Mclaughlin, 2012). The administration assistant is required to liaise with both the nurse assistant and practitioner but will little knowledge of any medical theories. Barriers focus on gaps in knowledge based on each position and the fact that the practitioner is the most educated and may communicate certain concepts to the other two members that they simply do not understand, therefore preventing effective communication pathways.
Cost and quality are also linked to the chosen scenario as the patient is ultimately paying for a medical service that needs to be delivered. If the patient can not understand the representative, then other employees need to intervene to ensure that the patient understands and receives what they paid for a medical basis. If this issue is not resolved, then the practice may lose clients as they choose another clinic that can better cater to their needs (Ha, 2010).
The success of the proposed plan will be assessed by gathering feedback from patients and analyzing the movement of patients in and out of the clinic including the number of first time patients in comparison to the previous few months and year overall. This will allow the clinic to determine whether the new plan is effective in retaining a large patient base. Based on the article by Mclaughlin (2012), “It is imperative that you provide your patients with the highest level of service from the first phone call”, it is essential that the plan promotes customer service and overall patient quality and care.
- Ha, J. (2010). Doctor-Patient Communication: A Review.US National Library of Medicine, Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3096184/
Accessed on 18th April, 2016. - Mclaughlin, A. (2012). Methods for Retaining Patients at Your Medical Practice. Physicians Practice, Retrieved from http://www.physicianspractice.com/blog/methods-retaining-patients-your-medical-practice Accessed on 18th April, 2016.
