Customer care vital in health care facilities

Delivery of good services in health care facilities such as hospitals, clinics and health centers is very necessary to our society.In today’s economic revolution, public and private sector that deals with customers need to improve on their services. This item is not only required in the commercial sector but also other sectors like the health sector.The hospital or other health care facility is always a special place for people to visit because it serves a special purpose for people’s lives. It’s agreeable that going to the hotel for food, accommodation or for other luxurious interests can be a personal decision but going to the hospital or other health facility is never a joy. It is actually an obligation because when you fall sick, you have no options rather than to seek medical solution from health care providers.Customers in a hospital are patients and their family members or even a visitor who comes for whatsoever reason they have. Therefore it is good for health care providers to provide very good medical care to them.Improvement of customer care service in a health care facility is vital to service delivery and has a positive image on loyalty that can be perceived on a number of patients or clients re-visiting the facility to seek health care.At the health facility, good communication is one of the skills to expect from health care providers because this builds a strong relationship between the provider and the client.Effective health care provider and patient relationship improves health care delivery in so many aspects. This is because it encourages respect, confidentiality and honesty amongst them. The real goal in promotion of customer care services is to obtain high quality services. High service quality correlates with high customer satisfaction in a general context. This is because patient satisfaction is affected by the characteristics of the health experts and their medical services. Patient satisfaction serves as a medium between service quality and behavioral intention.A favorable hospital quality services not only stimulates patient loyalty directly, but also enhance patient satisfaction through improvement of perceived service quality that in turn promotes the revisit intention of patients.In a competitive health care environment, hospitals should focus on their marketing efforts for effective customer care management. This is a point where hospital directors have to be strongly concerned and monitor development of such initiatives. Hospital administrators should fully understand the formation of a positive hospital customer care image in a valuable manner to increase perceived service quality and patient satisfaction. Like in any other business, customer care promotion in health setups needs concerted efforts. This involves use of integrated marketing strategies such advertising public relations, and communication with patients.For instance, the use of advertising to create the perception of a strong medical institution with specialized medical services and modern facilities is helpful for the establishment of a brand image towards a hospital. The end result of all this is the creation and maintenance of a positive hospital brand image that could allow a hospital to gain a competitive advantage in a competitive health care industry.Hospital administrators should plan and implement patient oriented service strategies for medical services and hope that these strategies will lead to higher patient satisfaction and loyalty. The patient oriented service strategies are important for providing high level of medical servicesand must be carried out in multi dimensional aspects. The multi dimensional aspects include assurance, empathy, responsiveness, reliability, and tangibles.Regarding assurance, it is important to assure patients that they will obtain their desired level and quality of services at the time they are admitted to the hospital. All medical staffs have to demonstrate excellent professionalism, technical skills, efficacy, and courtesy in order to gain the patients’ confidence in the hospital. On the issue of empathy, the medical staffs should put emphasis on the performance of soft skills, such as providing individualized attention, understanding patients’ needs, giving caring concerns and so on. On the aspect of responsiveness, being swift and responsive to patients’ requests, and communicating with them openly are essential components of medical service delivery. Relating to reliability, the medical staffs ought to put efforts into the correct and dependable performance of medical services, such as registration, therapy, aftercare, and follow-up for patients. With respect to tangibles, hospitals must strive to provide and maintain the cleanliness of environment, the neatness of buildings, the decoration of wards, and the appearance of medical staffs.