What the Dining Experience Can Teach Healthcare Leaders

It used to be that the members of hospitals’ C-suite had very little to think about in terms of goings on with patients; instead, their traditional focus has always been tied to thinking in terms of the bottom-line. Not to say that the patient and quality care isn’t the forefront of the healthcare industry, but now more than ever, the patient experience and quality care have become key drivers of hospital funding.

So, how can healthcare executives change their frame of mind and focus on quality service, care and the experience? One way to simplify this idea is to take it outside of healthcare and approach it as one would in another industry—get out of the muck of reform, the numbers, the bottom-line, reactive solutions and think big picture. Imagine a hospital or health system. Imagine being funded for years based on turning beds and billings. Now, imagine that same hospital or health system now in a scramble to revisit all of these tactics and processes to align with a new focus, value.

To put into perspective, think of those restaurants you visit where it’s clear they’re trying to turn tables quickly vs. entertaining and hosting you as a customer, a friend, and how these factors contribute to your perception of the restaurant.

One approach that a restaurant can take to become successful is to turn tables quickly in a hustling, bustling environment. This gets customers in and out in a short time, meaning more customers, more tickets, more sales, more revenue. This approach can be compared to the approach hospitals take when turning beds quickly — get patients/consumers in, and get them out. While this model isn’t a bad one, it tends to lack one major attribute: a high-quality experience, and for most customers and patients, this is one of the largest contributors to our satisfaction and a key indicator of our brand-loyalty.

On the other hand, another way restaurants can become successful is by creating a certain comfortable ambiance and focusing on high-quality food and service. Getting customers in and out as quickly as possible is not the focus of this kind of restaurant; instead, the focus is on providing only the best, making the consumers happy and building up a loyal clientele. By winning customers with an excellent customer service, building relationships, and making dining not just another meal, but an experience, these restaurants can begin to count on serving those same customers again in the future. It’s the 80/20 rule. The same goes for hospitals: When quality care and an excellent patient experience are provided, healthcare organizations retain more patients. See, wherever you go as any type of patron, you can receive a product or a service, and you can compare prices, but how we really decipher our preferences comes from experience—and those who deliver, are placed in the evoked set. With patients now more than ever shopping for care, this is where all healthcare organizations need to be.

It’s that simple because these small changes are simple to make. And they maybe simple, but they are important. Patients will appreciate being catered to, and your HCAHPS scores will follow suit.

Comments are closed.