Hospitals probably have more than one hundred points of contact with each patient. These points of contact (POCs) begin before the patient is admitted and continue after the patient has been discharged.
The first contact may come by a visit to one of the hospital’s clinics, a 3 A.M. call to a primary care physician, or browsing the hospital’s website.
Yesterday I assessed whether the website of a large hospital group was functional or whether it was just a website window-dressed to look like a customer portal. I assess functionality based on whether I was able to accomplish what I set out to accomplish.
I counted dozens of different phone numbers to call. Along with the list of numbers were links for physician and employee portals, links to the board, a link for donors, wellness, specialties, medical professionals, and dozens more, all on the front page.
There was even a link, albeit not a portal for patients—a rather important link since the number of visits by patients and prospective patients probably greatly exceeds the combined number of visits by all other visitors to the site. Unfortunately the patient link was imbedded with six other equally weighted links.
I clicked the patient link and was greeted by two-dozen new links, each displayed as being of equal importance. There were links for patients to use before coming to the hospital and links for them to use once they were home. Points of contact with your hospital. Points of satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
I clicked some more. Schedule an appointment. There are actually two links for scheduling an appointment. The first link gave me a phone number I could call M-F between 8 and 5:30 P.M. What number do I call at 6 PM I wondered? I tried the second link; it took me to the same place. Could I schedule an appointment online or through a mobile device?
What did I learn? There are 168 hours in a week. Their scheduling service operates for 47.5 hours a week, 28% of the week’s hours. If I dialed that number after hours would I get a recording telling me how important my call was? If my goal was to schedule an appointment using their website, or to schedule an appointment at any time on any device not only did the hospital not meet my expectation, it did not even offer me an alternative. A dead-end.
If it costs the hospital thirty dollars to schedule an appointment by phone and nothing to schedule an appointment online, why not complete the task correctly, the first time, and for zero cost?
I next looked at what I could do when I was home, more POCs, more chances to be satisfied or dissatisfied.
Manage my medical records. Using the website I was able to print and mail, two very non-electronic processes, a request to have my records printed and mailed to me. There was no way to submit my request using their website. If I did not own a printer or did not have access to a printer my expectation was not met, and was I not offered an alternative. Some people, a whole lot of people, actually like to complete tasks using a tablet or smart phone. Another dead-end.
Let’s try billing. For Medicaid patients there are two numbers to call for help understanding your bill. That means understanding Medicaid bills is a nontrivial exercise. That tells me that if I asked the same Medicaid billing question of three different people I might expect to get three different answers. Why not design the sight so that it provides one right answer to whatever question is asked? Why not include an online chat feature? Why not create a link to a YouTube video, produced by the hospital that explains Medicaid billing?
Medicare. No link to prequalifying, not even a phone number for questions.
How to pay your bill. Perhaps the most difficult and least desirous task a patient must do. There is no link explaining the various components of the bill, and nowhere on the site is a copy of a sample bill explaining or highlighting the various sections of the bill.
There is also no link to understand how to file a dispute or a claim with a payer. Maybe it is not possible to do this for every payer, but using the 80:20 rule there must be ways to help the majority of patients understand what they are up against rather than having them face down the evil empires on their own.
Patients come to the hospital’s website with expectations. Patient satisfaction is repeatedly won or lost at your hospital’s website and on the phones. POCs. Having a tool that proposes to help patients with their bills that not only does not help them but that adds to their frustration will crush patient satisfaction.
Hospitals want patients to pay their bills and to pay them on time. Patients who do not understand their bill will not pay more completely, nor will they pay faster.
The next time you look at your hospital’s website ask yourself how different it would look had someone asked a patient how it should function.
