“Oh, radiology is just terrible. They’re always running behind!” If patients hear this disparaging comment from a registrar, patient satisfaction suffers for the clinical area and patient access.
“The patient’s entire experience rests on how well we communicate and support one another,” emphasizes Karen Garrison, patient access manager at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, MI.
At Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, CA, patients often call the front desk because their prescriptions have not been called in, because they’re unable to get in to see their primary care physicians, or because they’ve waited days for a call back from a clinical area, says physician referral coordinator Tracey Thole. “The access department often hear complaints they feel should be directed to the clinical team,” she explains.
Bronson Methodist’s patients are instructed to come back to a registration staff member if they wait more than 15 minutes past their scheduled appointment times. When a patient comes back to registration, says Garrison, “it would be very easy to blame the area performing the test for not staying on time for their patients.”
Instead, registrars apologize for the wait, follow up with the department, and find out when someone will be out to greet the patient. “We find patients are understanding. They appreciate that they haven’t been forgotten,” says Garrison.
Registrars at Spartanburg (SC) Regional Healthcare System make a point of “managing up” the clinical departments they send patients to. “If we lift our co-workers up, they will, in turn, do the same for us. That provides excellent customer service all around,” says Jordan Martin, corporate educator for patient access services.
For example, if a registrar walks a patient to a testing area, he or she might say, “Mrs. Smith, this is Cindy. She is going to be your CT technologist. Cindy has been here for a long time and is going to take great care of you.” Likewise, a registrar might say, “Mrs. Smith, I see Dr. Simon is your physician. He is excellent. He is very good at listening and answering patient questions. You will be pleased with the care you receive from Dr. Simon.”
“If we notice a patient is waiting for longer than 10 minutes to be called back, we always call and check with the department,” says Martin. The registrar tells the patient that he or she is doing so by stating, “My name is Jordan. I registered you about 10 minutes ago and noticed you are still waiting. I checked with the lab, and they should calling your name soon.”
Alleviate anxiety
Simple facts often calm patients who are anxious about the procedure they are about to have.
“This occurs mostly with our CT and MRI patients, who have heard multiple horror stories from their friends or family members,” says Martin.
Some MRI patients stated how scared they were to be completely closed up in the machine prior to their test.
“I explained to them that the machine isn’t closed and at no point are they going to be trapped in the machine,” says Martin. Martin also lets patients know they’ll hold a button in their hand that alerts the technician if there is a problem.
“We take pride in the fact that we know and are familiar with all of the diagnostic areas that we provide service for,” says Martin. Patient access employees tell patients how long a procedure should take and give them an idea of what to expect. “The amount of time that each test takes is built into our schedule,” says Martin. “If the patient is here for an MRI of the brain, for example, we can tell them that this test should take anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes.” (For more information, see story on shadowing clinical areas in this issue.)
- Karen Garrison, Patient Access Manager, Bronson Methodist Hospital, Kalamazoo, MI. Email: [email protected].
- Jordan Martin, Patient Access Services, Spartanburg (SC) Regional Healthcare System. Phone: (864) 560-6238. Email: [email protected].
- Tracey Thole, Physician Referral Coordinator, Eisenhower Medical Center, Rancho Mirage, CA. Email: [email protected].
