Apples vs. Oranges: Sorting the Confusing World of Patient Satisfaction Scores in the Financial Experience

Understanding patient satisfaction scores is not just about numbers. It’s about gaining insights that can significantly impact the revenue cycle. From reimbursement rates to patient retention to physician referrals, what we learn about the patient experience is a powerful tool in our hands.

Navigating this landscape can be challenging for healthcare providers. Many organizations lack a standardized method for measuring patient satisfaction across departments. This leaves the door open for data to be reported in a way that skews overall satisfaction or places a higher weight on less impactful parts of the process, thereby compromising data integrity.

With best practices in place, healthcare organizations can confidently understand and interpret patient financial satisfaction metrics. This guidance ensures that we provide the most valuable and informative insights, steering us away from potential pitfalls.

Comparing Apples to Oranges

The key to making sense of satisfaction scores related to the patient financial experience is to ensure that healthcare finance teams understand the different aspects of the customer experience that these metrics measure. All patient satisfaction metrics aren’t created equal. For instance, comparing the speed of answering patient inquiries to the resolution and accuracy of answers is like comparing ‘apples to oranges,’ leading to poor data outcomes.

On the other hand, if an organization can distinguish between the different types of patient financial experience satisfaction metrics and their relation to and impact on overall satisfaction, this ensures that teams are comparing “apples to apples” and, therefore, able to gain the most relevant and informative data insights.

What Matters Most to Patients

There are numerous misconceptions about patient satisfaction during financial interactions that circulate in healthcare organizations. It’s crucial that we separate truth from fiction to make sense of these satisfaction scores, enlightening us and keeping us aware of the real drivers of patient satisfaction.

For example, many organizations believe that speed in answering patient inquiries is the primary driver of satisfaction. This is a misnomer. In actuality, this factor accounts for only 5% of satisfaction scores.

Healthcare organizations should examine multiple factors that make up overall satisfaction:

Factor to Be Measured	Impact on Customer Satisfaction
Resolution and accuracy of answers	Drives 40 to 50% of a “Very Satisfied” score; patients prioritize getting correct and comprehensive answers to their queries.
Timeliness to resolution	Contributes 20 to 30% to patient satisfaction; timely resolution is more important to patients than just a quick initial response.
Brand Reputation	Affects about 10% of satisfaction scores, reflecting patients’ overall trust in a healthcare organization.
Agent Engagement	Represents 8% of scores, in which an agent’s perceived empathy and helpfulness play a role.

Avoiding Apples-to-Oranges Comparisons

How can your organization avoid getting thrown off track by apples-to-oranges comparisons so patient satisfaction scores effectively inform revenue cycle strategies? Here are three key areas to scrutinize.

• Set up appropriate benchmarks. It’s important to consider the entire patient financial engagement journey, which includes all interactions from the initial inquiry to the resolution of the financial issue, in trying to capture the quality of the patient experience.
  • In measuring satisfaction with agent support, a patient might rate the interaction highly even when the issue wasn’t fully resolved.
  • Some metrics that aim to evaluate the financial resolution can inadvertently capture the patient’s opinion about their entire experience with the healthcare provider.
• Utilize the right scoring methods. Healthcare organizations can glean inaccurate data if they do not use the most appropriate scoring methods, such as the Net Promoter Score (NPS) or the Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), which are commonly used in the healthcare industry. 
• Accurately assess and evaluate data. Be sure your evaluation team is reading financial satisfaction scores correctly. There can be instances where errors lead to poor decision-making when comparing financial satisfaction scores across different vendors.

Leveraging Data-Driven Insights for Better Business Outcomes

Healthcare providers must evaluate data properly to critically evaluate what is included in patient financial satisfaction scores. To do this, they must look beyond surface-level metrics and focus on what truly drives patient satisfaction in the financial experience. The consequences of misinterpreting data can be serious; relying on skewed or incomplete data can lead to poor decision-making and diminish confidence in data quality.

Through improved understanding and interpreting of patient satisfaction data, healthcare organizations can improve the patient experience, paving the way for enhanced patient care and optimal organizational efficiency.

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