Eyeworld

12 Ophthalmology Business • September 2018 by Liz Hillman, Ophthalmology Business Senior Staff Writer What drives patient loyalty in and how to increase it in sity School of Medicine, and Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, Burl- ington, Massachusetts, said shows that the patient has a certain level of trust in and loyalty to the practice. The biggest factors associated with survey respondents' likelihood to recommend a practice revolved around that patient-provider re- lationship: "Likelihood of your recommending this care provider to others," "How well the staff worked together to care for you," and "Your confidence in this care provider." Other factors, such as ease of scheduling, getting through to the clinic by phone, office hours, and wait room times, were not as correlated with recommending a practice, but Dr. Ramsey said this doesn't mean these factors should be ignored. "All factors were important … all had a statistically significant correla- tion with outcome," he said. "Some were far more correlated than others, but you shouldn't be dismissive of things that are at the bottom of the list." Analysis of the survey results found that patients who might have negatively rated "How well the staff worked to care for you" increased the importance they placed on things like "Cleanliness of practice." "Of the areas queried, cleanliness of the practice may be an area to concentrate on for improvement and may remediate overall satisfaction for some patients," Ramsey et al. wrote. Things at the bottom of the list, such as the structural elements like office hours and cleanliness, are some of the easiest factors to adjust in a practice setting. "Interpersonal things are far harder to retrain, but that doesn't and patient satisfaction. Mr. Cole said patient loyalty, now more than ever, is harder to achieve for reasons such as growing competition and availability of information online (whether good or bad). A nationally representative survey that measured patient loyalty in ophthalmology, however, found there is a "remarkable level of patient satisfaction" in the specialty. Accord- ing to the paper published by Ramsey et al., the survey included more than 140,000 respondents from 566 sites (1,109 providers) over a 1-year period and found that overall, 96% reported a good or very good likelihood that they would recommend their oph- thalmic care provider. Analysis of the survey further drilled down into the factors that might lead a patient to recommend an ophthalmology practice to some- one else, a metric, which David J. Ramsey, MD, PhD, assistant profes- sor of ophthalmology, Tufts Univer- Nationally representative survey finds level of patient loyalty in ophthalmology is high; physician-patient relationship is key I t is six to 10 times costlier to attract a new patient than to retain an existing one, accord- ing to Kristin Baird, president and CEO of the Baird Group, a consulting firm based in Fort At- kinson, Wisconsin, that specializes in customer service for healthcare organizations. Thus, maintaining patient loyalty in the hope of retain- ing them—and perhaps even getting referrals through positive recommen- dations from them—is important for the health of a practice. Troy Cole, founder of Fort Worth, Texas-based LogiCole Con- sulting, works with medical practices to improve their marketing, sales,

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