The Importance Of Patient Satisfaction In Health

Patient satisfaction is a very important indicator that is used to measure the overall quality of healthcare. It generally affects the clinical outcomes, retention of patients and helps in handling any claims of malpractice in the health sector. This therefore makes patient satisfaction the best measure in terms if the effectiveness and efficiency in delivering quality healthcare. Apart from measuring the individual performance of individual practitioners, it also provides an in-depth evaluation of the overall performance of the medical centers. Further, the surveys on patient performance provide the best platform for engaging in measures and practices of improving service delivery. The result is happy and equally satisfied clients who immensely

Higher patient satisfaction leads to benefits in the industry in that the patients become loyal, improved customer retention whereby a satisfied patient passes the information to others who attend the same facility when in need. Health centers with higher patient loyalty can be able to command a higher price without upsetting (Otani, Waterman & Dunagan, 2012). A patient may be willing to pay higher to consult a physician of their choice if they have confidence with the facility leading to a higher

Satisfying patients is the top priority for healthcare administrators who are interested in improving the performance of the organization, preventing patient claim, leveraging on reimbursement and increasing gains in terms of the reputation as health providers of choice. The specific measures attributed this noble endeavor include waiting time, interaction with personnel, food, facility, access to information, inculcated programs and activities as well as perceived costs in relation to the quality of services delivered. In order to ensure quality of service and work towards improving the overall level of patient satisfaction, it is imperative for medical practitioners and other stakeholders to understand the above key measures and most importantly be able to make them a priority in all their practices. On the other hand, it is important to understand that patient satisfaction is a long-term process which takes concerted effort to achieve. Therefore, every instance should be a learning point where the focus should be on improving what is there presently to achieve higher standards