Patient Callbacks Defined
Within 24-48 hours of an episode of care for a patient, which can be a hospital stay or an office visit, hospitals and practices should proactively reach out to the patient to check on their well-being, capture key health data and reinforce adherence to prescribed regimens. This approach not only confirms recovery, but also alerts providers to potential issues that can be addressed prior to becoming more serious challenges.
Why Patient Callbacks are Important
For individuals, it’s about their emotions and the need to feel that other care about their well-being. It’s really that simple. All people, regardless of age, status or other categorization, are mentally encouraged with evidence of someone else connecting with them to check on their health. Positive emotions result in satisfaction and loyalty, which has a direct impact on …
The hospital and physician practice. All healthcare organizations are focused on serving patients in the best manner possible, and are driven by the positive patient outcomes. Yet, concurrent with this core mission, there is a fiscal aspect to the business of healthcare, and increasingly driven by perceptions of value, satisfaction and quality of care. Callbacks have a direct impact on patient outcomes and the business performance of every healthcare organization.
Who Should Handle Patient Callbacks
Patient callbacks often default to the nursing staff, which is understandable given that nurses most frequently interact with patients during a hospital stay or office visit. However, best practices in modern healthcare reveal that nursing time is better spent with current patients for many reasons. Yet the need for callbacks is ever-present and increasing. Innovation in technology has introduced text messages and emails as a proxy for callbacks, which are certainly a good first step in maintaining the patient dialogue. The best and preferred approach remains a phone call from a live representative. If not nurses, then who …?
A trained professional highly aligned with your team. With innovation and modern healthcare strategies, the critical process of patient callbacks can be managed effectively through specialized resources that are efficient while trained to be empathetic and caring to individual patient needs. Technology facilitates these conversations and also provides timely insights back to the hospital or physician as a general follow-up or alert to a patient issue.
At PREMEDEX, that’s what we do. We connect with thousands of patients every day on behalf of hospitals and physicians around the country. Our team of trained professionals are highly skilled in connecting with individuals to check on their well-being while also alerting physicians and other caregivers as to potential patient issues. We help our clients improve patient satisfaction and loyalty. Most importantly – every day – we help patients feel confident in their recovery from a hospital stay or in their prescribed treatment after an office visit.
Contact us today for a free consultation to explore how we can help you get back to basics.