*This content was written by Andresa Araujo, healthcare content writer based in Brazil.  Connect with her on LinkedIn also!

Patient experience (PX) refers to the group of interactions that patients have with the healthcare ecosystem. It includes not only medical appointments in general, but also the communication process. What feelings and impressions do they have? 

It may be cliche saying it, but healthcare was the segment most affected in this post Covid era. So, knowing how you can make these changes even better in your business may be an interesting goal. 

Interested? In the following sections, you’ll learn what patient experience is, its benefits, and some practical strategies to consider for your business. 

Why Is Patient Experience So Important?

In the same way we observed the shift in customer 5.0, patients also evolved their preferences.

Actually, this transition is still happening: from a customer who used to not know the value of the product, to a buyer who knows exactly where to go to find the product/service which he wants.

In the healthcare industry, we want something equivalent. That’s why you should already be improving patient experience. Read below for more benefits of a better PX:

• Patient engagement: in general, human beings are reciprocal. If a healthcare company truly prioritizes experience, the patient will notice. Even if it’s involuntary, he may engage as a return.
• More revenue: according to Accenture, to improve patient experience in hospitals means increased revenue.
• Improvement on reputation: when we think about health, that is to say our lives, it’s perfectly normal to be more careful with the service provider. A better patient experience in healthcare leads to positive feedback and a good reputation for a health institution.

4 Strategies That Will Help the PX for Your Healthcare Business

A society more and more mutable, with fresh consumption habits and, consequently, new patients’ needs, requires changes in the healthcare services too.

See some ways you can explore the patient experience in your clinic, hospital and (so important), social media.

Have an Online Presence and Be More Competitive

A survey of more than 1,700 respondents revealed that approximately ⅔ would choose one provider over another because of their online presence.

It’s worth pointing out that almost 70% of those interviewed over the age of 60 think the same.

And how to do that? Basically, you’ll have to study who you want to impact, pick the most important social media channels, plan the content, post and be consistent.

Practice Diversity and Inclusion in Your Service

Knowing the importance of patient experience in hospitals also implies offering more fair and welcoming services — regardless of the differences in race, gender, age and so on.

And the best part is, as long as there is an online presence, you can influence partners on this mission. 

For example: if you are a gynecologist, an option is to include content about breast cancer in the LGBTQ+ population in your strategy. For another campaign, you can use Instagram Live, with an endocrinologist, about hormone therapy. Do you understand the synergy in this? 

Craft a Patient Follow-Up Which Helps You Differentiate From Competition

Patient follow-up is a must, but I’m not talking about any old accompaniment. That medical follow-up based on generic surveys hardly produces any results in this health 5.0 era. 

The patients need specific approaches, solutions and other features that you can easily provide with the help of healthcare startups, for example.

Communication With Parents and Caregivers

Parents and caregivers, in many cases, are fundamental to patient treatment. 

Despite that, some health professionals still don’t put real importance on them: questioning about things the patient itself has difficulty to answer, asking favors or reminders, etc.

This impairs not only the development of exclusive services of a healthcare business and more humanized medical appointments, but in health content marketing. 

Parents and caregivers can be buyer personas. In other words, they also have their problems, waiting for the solution that you can help to solve by sharing the right orientations.

PX Is on Your Side, As It Is on the Patients’

Patient experience is like a box. You can pick a lot of resources from it. To increase your competitiveness, maintain ethics, help minorities in their needs and others use these win-win approaches. 

Do you want to learn more about the impressions and experiences of patients in the healthcare business? Share these tips with your colleagues, then!