discharge | Customer Service Solutions, Inc.

Don’t Harp on the Customer’s Mistake - 6/24/25


Seth’s daughter, Sarah, had missed some swim classes, and Seth remembered that the aquatics center had several make-up classes available late in the summer.  So Seth pulled up the class schedule on his phone, found one that worked on his and Sarah’s schedules, and planned to attend a session Read more

Create Customers for Life - 6/17/25


Veronica has gone to the same automotive service shop for at least 20 years.  She bought a new car about a year ago, and this is the third car she’s brought to the shop instead of taking her car to the dealer where she bought it.  She’s had three Read more

Don’t Turn the Customer into the QA Department - 6/10/25


Roberta received a form with information filled in by the company after her conversation with the account rep.  Roberta just needed to review the information, fill in some of the blanks, sign it, and resend it in order to set up a new account. She noticed that the effective date Read more

Imitate to Improve - 6/3/25


Oscar Wilde said that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”  Now this doesn’t mean that plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery.  Nor does it mean that great impersonators such as Rich Little, Dana Carvey, or Frank Caliendo are always offering flattering portrayals of those that they imitate. Wilde’s Read more

How the Customer Perceives a Truth as a Lie - 5/27/25


You’re the customer, you’re asking about an unused item that you’re returning, and you hear the employee say: “The refund process takes 7-10 days.”  You’re thinking: “Great!  I can get the refund check as early as a week from today!”  The reality is that the company means that they’ll Read more

Tell Customers What’s Next - 5/20/25


In most businesses that have been around for a while, how a process was originally designed is not how it currently operates.  Sometimes this change is referred to as “practical drift,” where the actual process moves further and further away from the documented steps over time.  Maybe the changes Read more

Questions to Guide You to Empathy - 5/13/25


“If I was him, I would do ABC…” If you’ve ever heard somebody say this - whether it’s a friend or acquaintance, whether it’s some TV reporter or podcaster - you may get as frustrated or as annoyed as I do. I get annoyed because we are not that other person. Read more

Negate the Nervousness - 5/6/25


The customer needed a loan, so he walked into the bank, but he was a little nervous.  He knew that launching his business would be easier if he had some working capital, but that’s about all he knew.  He was anxious because he didn’t know what to expect in Read more

Don’t Rush to Resolve Quickly - 4/29/25


The customer is angry, so you use the CSS LEAD technique as designed.  You, listen, empathize, accept responsibility, and deliver on a remedy.  But it doesn’t work.  The customer is still upset, and maybe even a little more frustrated than when you started…why?! If the use of this technique fails, Read more

Energy v. Apathy - 4/22/25


I asked a couple friends who are much more scientifically-oriented the question: What is energy?  I didn’t mean E=MC2.  I meant physiologically, what is energy? They described a lot of things that sounded really good, yet far too advanced for my non-medical mind. Part of the reason why energy is of Read more

Patient Satisfaction – Driven by What You Do After They Leave

Posted on in Business Advice, Healthcare Please leave a comment

The nurses.com article Discharge calls help nurses affect readmission rates, patient satisfaction notes that an increasing trend of calling patients post-discharge is having positive effects on patient outcomes and satisfaction. At one hospital, the calls involve social workers contacting patients to gauge the patient’s mindset (“psychosocial” state) as well as determine whether they’re getting their clinical needs met.

Generalizing what’s done here to apply to any industry, the customer is contacted soon after the transaction to gauge satisfaction (i.e., how they’re feeling mentally) and to follow-up to ensure that whatever next steps were identified are being addressed.

But before we say “this is too much work to contact every patient or customer…” after every encounter, let’s focus on another finding in the article. One facility looks at the home care population, and a member of management stated that “we stratify them into high risk, moderate risk and low risk. If they are high risk, they will also have a nurse practitioner with a specialty in heart failure either calling them or visiting their home within 72 hours of discharge.”

This is the key to being efficient and most effective – stratifying your patient base. Organizations that want to drive high levels of patient satisfaction need to realize that they must keep relationships fresh, they must gauge patient perceptions post-discharge, they must ensure that appropriate follow-up and compliance with post-discharge instructions are occurring. But they also must NOT view every patient the same.

Some patients are more at-risk of readmission, more likely not to return if dissatisfied, more driven to be satisfied/dissatisfied based on their relationship with the organization.

When you look to reduce readmissions and improve patient satisfaction, do the necessary follow-up and relationship-building in a targeted manner to make those improvements with efficiencies.

Remember that patient satisfaction is often driven by what you do AFTER they leave.

Interested in improving your hospital’s patient satisfaction? See our other blog posts at: http://serviceadvice.cssamerica.com/category/healthcare/

Check out our patient satisfaction improvement services at: http://cssamerica.com/csshealth.htm