Leading in Patient Centred Health

As health care becomes more competitive and patients learn to shop around, excellent customer service will become increasingly important to attracting and retaining customers and talented employees. Future leaders in the Health sector will need to embrace a central focus on patient experience and excel at build patient-centric team cultures that value positive patient experiences as equally important to supporting patient health.

With the advent of CDC funding in aged care and participant choice under NDIS, Health sector leaders increasingly need to think of patients as consumers and respect their desire to deal with people and organisations that make them feel comfortable.

From the way patients are greeted at reception to the selection of food they offered; every aspect of their experience needs to be considered as an aspect of delivering on their customer service needs.

In an industry that has historically been dominated by issues of compliance and control, the shift to a more patient-centric culture can be really challenging, as it appears to add an additional burden on top of the expectations already placed on busy professional and support staff.  The challenge for Health sector leaders is to consider their own capabilities for strategic planning and management in the light of customer service value delivery. Just as many Training Colleges are now developing specific training programs to align behaviours with expectations from customers, it is timely for Health sector leadership teams to review their own need to understand more about the successful management of positive patient experience delivery, and to think about equipping and training all staff including the clinicians in all aspects of customer service.

Positive leadership for excellent customer experience is something that can have a huge impact on the way staff feel about the team they work with and the place they work for. Enabling teams to deliver an excellent experience that embraces positive personal as well as health outcomes is a potential source of motivation and productivity.

Health leaders who embrace customer centricity will be well positioned in the future to lead high performing organisations. Driving superior customer service outcomes will ensure that that their organisations are regarded as employers of choice and that patients will actively seek out their services.