Waiting sucks: Time to fix healthcare’s other transparency issue

It may get more attention, but lack of insight into pricing is hardly the only healthcare transparency problem that aggravates patients.

Long wait times frustrate patients to no end, especially when they don't know when they'll be seen. In fact, research shows that this "not knowing" is what really upsets patients, to the point of negatively impacting their entire perception of the care experience—right down to the quality of care received.

An argument could be made that this is an unfair over-reaction, given the unpredictability of patient flow (yet another transparency issue) and inevitable delays in the typical outpatient care setting. But the reality is that a provider who routinely makes patients wait longer than they anticipated is eventually going to lose these patients, especially when lengthy waits are paired with just a fleeting few minutes in front of the provider.

Or, if they practice in an area with little competition—an increasing rarity—these persistently long wait times will drag down their patient satisfaction scores, eventually diminishing incentives revenue.

Staffing up could conceivably bring some more efficiency; at least, for a while. But it doesn't address the underlying problem: lack of transparency into wait times. To that end, healthcare providers can take a cue from the retail industry.

How to make anywhere the waiting room

When it comes down to it, here's what patients and their families want—what all of us want, really: control over our time. Control over how and where we spend it, and for how long. That's something most of us relinquish the moment we walk into a provider's waiting room. And we detest it, especially as the minutes drag by with absolutely no clue when the door to the waiting room will open and someone with a chart in hand will beckon us to be seen.

Many retail and consumer businesses stopped putting their customers through this sort of wait years ago. In one of the most notable examples, restaurants now enable patrons to track their place in line and wait status right from their smart phones; essentially sparing them from having to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other waiting patrons.

A number of healthcare and provider organizations—including ambulatory surgery centers, health systems, urgent care clinics, and primary care and specialty care practices -- are now doing the same, letting patients check in from their computer or smart phone, which holds their place in line right up to when they really will be seen. In the meantime, they can run an errand or just stay in bed longer.

Family members who accompany a patient to a service can also receive updates, such as whether the patient is being prepped for surgery or is in recovery. This is important, as whoever takes the patient to the procedure is essentially the patient's eyes and ears of the care experience. It's what they take away from the experience that will almost surely be reflected in the patient's satisfaction scores.

Finally, don't forget that administrative staff also struggle with transparency into wait times. They're too busy processing patients; no one's got the bandwidth to stay focused on which patients have been waiting for how long. Yet without this insight, it's difficult to keep staff and rooms available according to prioritized need. Instead, a "first in, first seen" mentality prevails, which isn't always very efficient. With a mobile check-in app in place, staff can see who is coming in and plan accordingly.

Today's patients demand transparency

Far from being resigned to long wait times, today's patients are complaining about them--publicly, on the internet, and to their friends and family and co-workers. They're also less likely to return to the provider who made them wait, a delay that's increasingly out of place in today's technology-driven world where people don't have to wait for much of anything. With a click or a tap here, they can check their bank balance, book a flight or hold their place in line at their favorite restaurant. With such accessible transparency at hand in almost every aspect of life, patients rightfully expect it in healthcare.

Dave Dyell is founder and CEO of Jellyfish Health.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25181568 and http://www.ajmc.com/journals/issue/2014/2014-vol20-n5/wait-times-patient-satisfaction-scores-and-the-perception-of-care

2 http://nciom.org/wp-content/uploads/NCMJ/nov-dec-06/Camacho.pdf

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