THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO

PATIENT
EXPERIENCE
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
It has been proven that providing a positive patient experience has many benefits, for
patients as well as for staff. Learn more about what we mean when we say patient
experience, why patient experience important, and how to measure and improve it.

CHAPTERS

01 02 03
What is Why is patient experience How to measure patient
patient experience? important? experience?

04 05 06
How to improve the Patient experience in healthcare: Patient experience
patient experience? examples from hospitals, clinics, management tools
labs, and pharmacies
01

WHAT IS PATIENT
EXPERIENCE?
WHAT IS PATIENT EXPERIENCE?

Patient experience is the sum of all interactions a patient has

with the healthcare system and that influences his/her
perceptions across the continuum of care. That includes not
just the time a patient spends with a doctor or a nurse and the
quality of the technical aspects of care (diagnosis and
treatment), but also consumer aspects of healthcare such as
the appointment booking experience, timely appointments,
and easy access to information.

Consumers’ expectations of services are rising in all areas,

including patients’ expectations of health care services. An
increased focus on and understanding of the importance of
the patient experience is key to moving to more patient-
centred care. By examining different aspects of the patient
experience, one can assess whether patients are receiving
care that meets their expectations.
02

WHY IS PATIENT
EXPERIENCE IMPORTANT?
Providing an experience that is positive for the
patient is an important goal in its own right.
Moreover, research indicates that there is a link
between a positive patient experience and
better clinical outcomes, also leading to happier
and healthier healthcare staff, reduced turnover,
improved hospital reputation, and increased
patient loyalty.
HAPPIER, HEALTHIER HEALTHCARE
STAFF AND LESS TURNOVER
A patient’s positive experience can support the health and
wellness of hospital staff too. When patients express their
gratitude, hospital staff feel more satisfied in their jobs, stress
levels go down and the risk of burnout drops. Healthcare staff
with lower levels of stress are also more likely to stay healthy
and be more content in their employment.

With a decreased turnover of staff, managers can focus on

day-to-day tasks instead of being forced to spend their time
on recruiting and hiring staff. By retaining the same workforce
for longer, patients who visit the hospital more regularly are
more likely to see the same hospital staff, making it easier to
build meaningful relationships.
IMPROVED HOSPITAL REPUTATION
AND PATIENT LOYALTY

Research shows that hospitals that provide a positive patient

experience have better reputations. As most patients are likely
to do their research before selecting their healthcare providers,
a positive reputation plays a part in the would-be patients’
selection process and affects patient loyalty.
03

HOW TO MEASURE
PATIENT EXPERIENCE?
WRITTEN SURVEYS
Patient experience can be measured using a wide variety of
methods, with surveys, interviews and patient stories being the
most researched ones. And don’t forget gathering patient data
from online and offline sources. All methods come with their
own set of pros and cons.

Written surveys tend to be the most popular approach for

requesting feedback. It is cost-effective and reliable. Written
surveys are easy to distribute as you can use multiple
administration methods, such as kiosks, online and text
messages. Response rates are often high, resulting in larger
quantities of data for more statistically significant results.
ON-SITE RATING TOOLS
AND INTERVIEWS
On-site rating tools are available to many people which
means you can get ratings from large numbers of patients.
Rating tools provide surface-level information only, but can
still be useful to signal areas in need of improvement and
identify things that patients are particularly passionate about.

Interviews and patient stories are more appropriate when

handling sensitive data and give the patient the opportunity to
provide in-depth information. Performing interviews is,
however, resource-intensive. You may have difficulty
interviewing the same people multiple times and run into
generalisability issues with small samples of data.
04

HOW TO IMPROVE THE

PATIENT EXPERIENCE?
Improving the patient experience can be easier
said than done. First of all, the patient’s entire
journey must be in focus, especially in multi-
discipline environments, not just the medical
procedures. If, for example, a movement from
one service to another is not properly managed
or communicated, frustration might grow.

Based on extensive experience, in his blog post How to

improve the patient experience, Sven-Olof Husmark
recommended a few priorities that can help position
caregivers as leaders in patient experience:

• simplify appointment scheduling,

• create a friendly environment,
• reduce perceived waiting times,
• lessen confusion,
• survey customers in real time,
• and follow up with patients.
SIMPLIFY APPOINTMENT SCHEDULING
With today's technology, visitors' behaviour and expectations
have increased significantly. Thus, you as a service provider
need to consider and continually improve your patient journey.
By making it easier to schedule appointments, your patients
can better plan their day and do not have to wait upon arrival,
reducing waiting times and increasing patients’ flexibility.
A smooth appointment scheduling process can also improve
the work environment of healthcare providers as limiting the
number of walk-ins and the improved workload overview
provides opportunities to improve staff planning.
By analyzing the data of performed appointments, for example,
if appointments typically take longer or shorter than the time
set, it is also possible to optimize the appointment lengths and
bookable resources to increase satisfaction.
Qmatic’s appointment scheduling solution is fully integrated
with the customer journey management platform, allowing you
to book multiple resources or appointments in one visit to
provide a seamless patient journey. By offering a virtual
queuing solution with SMS check-in and mobile tickets
connected to the appointment, patients can wait wherever they
want, which limits the risk of infection and decreases the
perceived waiting time.
CREATE A FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT
Research shows that the friendliness of the office staff has
the greatest impact on a positive patient experience. By
creating a pleasant, welcoming environment at the start of a
patient’s visit, healthcare providers immediately improve the
chances of a higher satisfaction rating. One of the best ways
to do that is to keep staff informed and properly utilized.

With Qmatic’s solution, it is possible to integrate the patient

scheduling and arrival management solution with your HIS
system to improve efficiencies and the patient experience. It
ensures that your staff always has access to relevant patient
information, while still securing patient privacy.
REDUCE ACTUAL AND
PERCEIVED WAITING TIMES

Long waiting times are patients’ number one complaint. Solid

scheduling guidelines (to avoid overbooking) and always
keeping patients in the know with information and updates can
help reduce both actual and perceived waiting times. While
decreasing waiting times does have a positive effect on patient
experience, communicating with patients has an even bigger
impact. In fact, in a study of 5,000 patient participants, 80%
said that knowing their wait time in advance would eliminate
frustration.

With a virtual queuing system, patients are free to wait

anywhere they like, for example in a park or at a café, which
makes queuing a more pleasant experience. At check-in, the
patient receives a virtual ticket and the messaging service
provides real-time notifications throughout the patient’s
interaction with your healthcare facility.
REDUCE CONFUSION
Uncertainty about what comes next is a pain point for
patients. Providing real-time information throughout the
patient journey helps keep them in the know. Solutions like
digital signage, media displays and audio solutions
throughout the office go a long way to prevent confusion.
Displays can let patients know their position in line, inform
them about how they should be prepared for their visit, or
even how to validate their parking.

By connecting a messaging service to your patient journey

management system, you can provide patients with booking
confirmations, appointment reminders and what to prepare
ahead of their visit to keep them in the know. The real-time
updates and reminders are sent directly to the patient’s
phone via SMS or email. You can also use virtual queuing so
that each patient can monitor their place in the line on their
phone.
FOLLOW UP WITH THE PATIENT –
SURVEY IN REAL TIME

Patient contact shouldn’t stop after they leave the facility. Top-
quality care involves ongoing communication. By reaching out
to patients after the visit, caregivers show attentiveness and
build relationships that keep patients coming back. This is an
area that is often forgotten about.

Giving each patient the opportunity to answer a simple survey

not only makes them feel valued, but also generates important
data about the patient experience in real-time. That information
is important for filing reimbursements, and the immediacy of the
data allows providers to remain consistently aware of how to
cultivate the best possible care environment.
DEMONSTRATE A COMMITMENT
TO PATIENT SAFETY
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is heightened
awareness about staff and patient safety. Patients want to
know that you take their safety seriously. With the appropriate
measures in place, it is possible to keep both patients and
staff safe and well informed.

By managing the patient flow smoothly, you can maintain

social distancing through the patient journey. Appointment
scheduling and arrival management solutions that enable
self-check-in could be an option. By checking in with a QR
code placed at the entrance or outside, or by following a link
in an email or SMS, patients can avoid queues and crowded
waiting areas.

Checked-in patients can be offered a mobile ticket or SMS

reminder that allows them to wait remotely, so-called virtual
queuing, to maintain social distancing in the waiting area.

If you have protocols and checklists to follow, they can be

made readily available to the patient well in advance through
messaging services, using SMS or email.
05

PATIENT EXPERIENCE
IN HEALTHCARE
Examples from hospitals, clinics, labs, and pharmacies
 “
SOUTHEAST GEORGIA HEALTH SYSTEM
DECREASED PATIENT WAIT TIMES BY
Patient volumes have
50% WITH QMATIC
increased dramatically since we
Struggling with time-consuming manual paper tracking of installed the Qmatic system.
patients and outdated calling methods, Southeast Georgia
Health System turned to Qmatic to solve their patient tracking
At the same time, we noticed a
and data needs. 50% decrease in patient wait
Read the full customer story on how Southeast Georgia Health times. With Qmatic we can
System decreased wait times by 50% with Qmatic maintain both the higher patient
volume and the decreased
service times.
Stephanie Sinopoli, Director of Revenue/Admissions.
ST. JOSEF’S HOSPITAL WIESBADEN
REDUCES WAIT TIMES BY 50% WITH
QMATIC
Three admission desks for elective patients, with varying
workloads, meant patients at St. Josef’s Hospital Wiesbaden
faced wait times of up to two hours. Furthermore, the delay at
admissions caused further delays in, for example, the
operating room.

By combining the three admission desks into one central

admissions area and controlling the patient flow through the
Qmatic Orchestra Solution, St. Josef’s Hospital Wiesbaden
was able to reduce waiting times by 50% – and noticed a
clear increase in both patient and staff satisfaction.

Read the full customer story on how St. Josef’s Hospital

Wiesbaden reduced wait times by 50% with Qmatic
ALLIAR MÉDICOS À FRENTE REDUCES
AVERAGE WAIT TIME AND INCREASES
PRODUCTIVITY WITH QMATIC
With 3 000 patients walking through their testing and imaging
centres each day, check-in and necessary paperwork was
adding too many minutes to patient wait times at Alliar Médicos
à Frente. Leadership recognized the need to create an efficient
patient flow throughout the center, and a centralized location to
manage staffing to successfully process each patient in a
timely manner.

Before the implementation of Qmatic, Alliar had peak wait times

of up to an hour and a half. After the implementation, wait times
are an average of 5 minutes, with peaks of 15 minutes. Qmatic
Orchestra’s online dashboard allows Alliar to align patient flow
with staffing needs, thereby ensuring a seamless experience.

Read the full story on how Alliar Médicos à Frente reduced

average wait time and increased productivity with Qmatic
QMATIC OPTIMIZE THE PATIENT
FLOWS AT ADRZ HOSPITAL IN THE
NETHERLANDS
When faced with the need for renovations, ADRZ Hospital
went all out. The result is a patient-friendly hospital with
optimized patient flows.

An automated process for calling patients provides the

opportunity to collect management information, which makes
it easier to manage patient expectations by, for example,
communicating waiting times. The automated calling process
also gives ADRZ a more effective use of resources as usage
can be monitored in real-time.

Read the full story on how Qmatic optimize the patient

flows at ADRZ Hospital in the Netherlands
 “
GUARNIERI OFFERS AN ORGANIZED
PATIENT FLOW WITH QMATIC PATIENT
JOURNEY MANAGEMENT In the reception area, patients
were getting a bit disoriented
In the first phase, Guarnieri focused on the flow of patients at
registration. Touch-screen kiosks and monitors let patients
and were not well informed
choose which service they need and direct them to the correct regarding expectations.This is
entrance. Monitors in the waiting areas display wait times and
broadcast multimedia content to keep patients informed and why we started thinking about
entertained at the same time.
solutions to better organize
Read the full story on how Guarnieri offers an organized patient registration and provide
patient flow with Qmatic patient journey management
information to patients more
effectively.
Giovanni Pica, IT Manager for the Guarnieri Hospital.

“
The results we have collected
confirm that we are on the right
path because our quality of
services and patient
satisfaction have increased
significantly.
Roland Poledda, IT Manager
KINETIKA SARDAGENA PARTNERS
WITH QMATIC TO MANAGE THE
PATIENT FLOW
Kinetika Sardagena needed a way to manage the huge
number of patients waiting in line at their facilities every day.
They looked for a solution that was capable of managing the
reception of patients and making their wait less burdensome.
The Qmatic queue management solution makes sure that
each patient’s turn is respected, while no one has to
physically get in line. Queue status and other relevant
information is displayed on strategically placed monitors.
Read the full story on how Kinetika Sardegana partners
with Qmatic to manage the patient flow
06

PATIENT EXPERIENCE
MANAGEMENT TOOLS
APPOINTMENT SCHEDULING
An appointment management system makes it easier for
patients to connect to your healthcare services anywhere,
anytime. It also enables you to distribute the workload evenly
throughout the workday, creating a better balance between
walk-ins and appointments.

With appointment scheduling, your patients can handle their

appointments online. You also have the option to send
automatic confirmations and reminders to keep them informed.
With integrated arrival management and self-check-in, patients
can check in with a link sent by email or SMS. The business
intelligence tool provides real-time data, analytics and
advanced reporting of customer behaviour and branch
performance.

Qmatic appointment management solutions are fully integrated

with the customer journey management platform for a
seamless patient experience.
QUEUE MANAGEMENT
A queue management solution can help optimise the patient
flow, minimizing crowding in waiting areas and reducing wait
times, while also keeping patients informed every step of the
way.

Qmatic queue management solutions cover everything from

basic queue management to fully tailored customer journey
platforms that utilize customer data, bridging the gap
between the physical environment and online to provide a
seamless patient experience and improve staff efficiency.
VIRTUAL QUEUING

Virtual queuing allows for patients to wait anywhere using a

smartphone to monitor their progress in real-time and receive
notifications when it's their turn to be served. Not only does
virtual queuing make the waiting process a more enjoyable
experience for the patient, reducing perceived waiting times, it
also enables safe queuing and social distancing.

Features include:

• Mobile ticket
• Online appointment booking
• Staff application
• Messaging services
• Business intelligence, insights and reporting
• Online customer feedback
REPORTING AND ANALYTICS
With Qmatic business intelligence tools, you can gather data from every part of the patient
journey – customer feedback included – to generate the comprehensive, up-to-date
insights you need to make better data-driven business decisions that optimize operations
and delight patients at every touchpoint.

Real-time dashboards Patient feedback Staff applications Integration with HIS

Real-time dashboards let you
access real-time data of
workflows, current situation, and
service performance metrics.
Identify emerging trends, monitor
operational efficiency, and make
data-driven decisions to improve
operations.
With Qmatic’s solutions for
patient feedback, you can gather
insights into your patients’ needs,
strengthen customer
relationships, and boost customer
satisfaction at every touchpoint.
With intuitive and user-friendly Integrating Qmatic’s full suite of
apps for managing waiting patient journey solutions to your
patients, staff can meet and serve HIS allows for more streamlined
patients more directly. Thanks to a processes, increased efficiency,
full HIS integration, all relevant and better quality of care by
information is available in one efficiently utilizing healthcare
system, giving staff a 360 view of resources.
the patient’s journey. With the app,
staff can, among other things, call
and serve patients, transfer
patients to other queues and staff
members, schedule, and re-
schedule.
THANK YOU!

Patient experience is the perception of care throughout the

journey in the healthcare system, covering everything from the
meeting with a nurse or a doctor to the aspects of, e.g.,
appointment booking experience, timely appointments, and
information access.

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