By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    bowl of vegetable salad
    Raw Foods: benefits and harms
    November 9, 2021
    pros and cons of the keto diet
    Read This Before You Follow the Keto Diet
    May 18, 2022
    spinal cord injuries
    4 Potential Causes of Spinal Cord Injuries (and How to Seek Compensation)
    May 25, 2022
    Latest News
    7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
    August 20, 2025
    Hospital Pest Control and the Fight Against Superbugs
    August 20, 2025
    Hygiene Beyond The Clinic: Attention To Overlooked Non-Clinical Spaces
    August 13, 2025
    5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
    August 3, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    The Hidden Epidemic of Nursing Home Abuse
    February 16, 2021
    Smiles Make the World Go Around
    August 25, 2017
    Those Pesky Tension Headaches
    September 12, 2017
    Latest News
    How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
    August 20, 2025
    How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
    August 20, 2025
    How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
    August 20, 2025
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: 7 Ways to Prepare Your Staff for Better Patient Interactions
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Business > Hospital Administration > 7 Ways to Prepare Your Staff for Better Patient Interactions
Hospital Administration

7 Ways to Prepare Your Staff for Better Patient Interactions

jennacyprus
jennacyprus
Share
6 Min Read
7 Ways to Prepare Your Staff for Better Patient Interactions
SHARE

Most hospital administrators find themselves spending most of their time reviewing internal policies and procedures, investing in new technologies, and changing operations to improve capacity and profitability. But there?s one key element of successful healthcare organizations that many administrators overlook: patient interactions and satisfaction. But why is this so important, and how can you improve outcomes among your staff members?

Contents
  • Why Patient Interactions Matter
  • Tips for Better Interaction Training

Why Patient Interactions Matter

Patient interactions matter because they have a direct bearing on patient satisfaction, which in turn plays a role in three major areas:

  • Clinical outcomes. Happy patients are more likely to follow your advice, and see positive outcomes from their visits.
  • Patient retention. Satisfied patients will likely stick with your organization, rather than seeking help elsewhere.
  • Malpractice claims. Patients who associate your organization with positive feelings and experiences are much less likely to file for malpractice.

Tips for Better Interaction Training

So what can you do to improve training for your staff to maximize patient interaction value?

  1. Consider using standardized patients. First, consider using standardized patients as a kind of training ground (and evaluative process) for your staff members. For newcomers, standardized patients serve as an exercise in both diagnosis and bedside manner, and for experienced professionals, they serve as a kind of ?secret shopper? for the industry. These insider patients are trained to behave like real patients, with lifelike symptoms, but will be able to calmly evaluate the interactions they receive and give feedback based on those experiences.
  2. Prepare for a variety of scenarios. Next, make sure to have differentiated training in place, as not all patients require the same type and level of interaction. Someone who was just in a car accident, for example, will be especially distressed compared to someone who?s been dealing with a low level of chronic pain for the past several weeks. Older patients require different care than younger patients, and your staff should be equipped to deal with people in many different emotional states.
  3. Include multiple interactions every visit. There are many roles in your organization, including doctors, nurses, and dozens of support-related positions. If you focus only on your doctors, or only on your nurses, you?re going to miss out on several impactful opportunities for interaction. Your staff should be trained to provide experiences at multiple levels, and in multiple ways; everyone in the building should be equipped with patient service skills.
  4. Work on building long-term patient relationships. Your best patients are going to be ones that you have a history with, so train your staff to focus on building long-term relationships. This is hard to train for, but relatively easy to execute; simple touches, like having personal conversations, and spending a few extra minutes taking and answering questions can make a big difference to a patient. If they feel heard, respected, and valued, they?re going to be far more likely to keep returning, and your patient relationships will build themselves.
  5. Allow more patient control. Focus groups indicate that patients are more satisfied when they feel they have at least some control over their environments. Accordingly, you can train your staff and adjust your environments to allow for more patient control. This includes anything from giving patients more options (such as choosing which waiting room to use) to giving patients more environmental controls.
  6. Consider offering multiple types of brand experience. You can remove some of the burdens on your staff members by offering brand experiences that exist outside of your main building. For example, you could have a thriving social media presence that engages with your patients on a regular basis, or a content campaign committed to providing more information to your customer base. You could even have a separate hotline or method of communication for patients who need answers to quick questions, or who otherwise want an interaction without scheduling a full appointment.
  7. Collect and review patient feedback. These strategies all help prepare your staff for better interactions, but there?s only one way to tell for sure whether those strategies are working: collecting and reviewing patient feedback. Make sure to use surveys and other modes of gathering information at multiple stages of the process, and pay attention to subjective comments left by your patients. A thorough review should be able to illuminate not only how you?re improving over time, but which areas specifically require more improvement (and possibly, how to go about improving them).

These key strategies will help you improve the execution, monitoring, and measuring of your staff?s patient interactions. Whether you set this up as an initiative for new hires, or apply it as additional training for your existing team, you should see positive effects within weeks to months of your rollout.

More Read

Bacteria and Mobile Devices
Top 5 Reasons Hospitals Are Losing Money
(Some) Docs Launch War on Overutilization
Do Overworked Medical Interns Cause Medical Errors? Let’s Sleep on It.
How to Secure Data in Healthcare
TAGGED:engaged patient carepatient interaction
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

engineer fitting prosthetic arm
How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
Health care
August 20, 2025
a woman explaining the document
How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
Public Health
August 20, 2025
physiotherapist at work
How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
Health care
August 20, 2025
Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs
7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
Health News
August 20, 2025

You Might also Like

Will Your Local Hospital Exist in 10 years? Should it?

March 25, 2012
Outsourcing_RCM
BusinessFinanceHospital Administration

Risks and Benefits of Outsourcing Revenue Cycle Management Functions

December 4, 2014

The 5 Biggest Challenges Healthcare Leaders are Facing in 2015

August 5, 2015

Hospital Capacity Management: Interview With GE Performance Solutions (transcript)

August 4, 2011
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?