Improving Your Patient Care By Improving On Customer Service
In the healthcare industry, speed of service is one of the most significant complaints with customers and patients. Too long to be seen is considered a nuisance, and slow discharge times make the patient uneasy.
The balancing act of speed and service is and should be overshadowed by the demand for quality care. But unfortunately, patients’ perception is that the long wait for care is parallel with lower-quality care.
Self-check-in kiosks and digital signing have made check-in and discharge times shorter, easing the stress and anxiety a patient may feel during a visit, which creates an environment for happier patients.
And happier patients are more willing to be returning, have a better sense of satisfaction in their health care, and ease some of the administrative burdens of the staff.
Oral Health As The Frontlines Of Overall Health
As with other parts of the body, the mouth carries a lot of mostly harmless bacteria but acts as a gateway to the respiratory and digestive tracts.
That being said, the mouth is on the front lines of your overall health and should be part of your regular health examinations.
One of the ways that harmful bacteria can affect your overall health is by propagating bad bacteria growth in the mouth that spreads into the body and lungs.
Sources of harmful bacteria may come from food, cavities, and gum disease, and routine cleanings are the best ways to prevent the spread of these bacteria.
Patient Steps To Protect Oral Health
There are basic things that can be done to prevent the damage and risk associated with poor oral hygiene. These included everyday activities such as brushing and flossing, followed by routine exams and cleanings.
Additionally, avoid excessive amounts of sugars and salt in the diet and drink enough water to promote good saliva flow.
Saliva helps the mouth rinse bacteria into the digestive tract before it has a chance to grow in the mouth.
Certain types of diseases that compromise the immune system, such as diabetes and HIV/AIDS, can wreak havoc on the mouth’s health, so regular care becomes critical.
General advice for taking care of your oral health include:
- Brushing: At least twice a day, brush your teeth, preferably after meals.
- Floss: Flossing stimulates blood flow to the gums and helps remove any food particles that brushing may have missed.
- Rinse: Using a dental rinse such as mouth wash will increase the likelihood of getting food-borne particles out from between the teeth and gums.
- Routine Dental Exams: Routine dental exams that look for cavities and cracks, as well as gum disease, will help you maintain good oral health.
- Regular Dental Cleanings: Dental cleanings to remove particles and plaque buildup are crucial for overall oral health.
There is a correlation between plaque buildup in the mouth and certain other health issues, such as increased heart attack risk.
Incorporating speed of service and quality of care into the dental world can be tricky, but it doesn’t have to be. In addition to offering better check-in and check-out procedures, having the speed and convenience of making molds and other dental prosthetics quickly will positively impact the patient’s perspective as well as care.
One of the newest additions to the dental office is building molds and other prosthetics quickly, onsite, and safely using dental 3D printing technology.
The benefits of 3D dental printing are many, but the ease and speed of using in-house 3D printing offer solutions for the patient quickly.
Making individualized and customizable molds and prosthetics in-house means that the wait time for the devices is shortened, creating faster, better quality care.
The benefits of 3D printing extend beyond just the printing. The speed and quality of care provided by these solutions have forced the marketplace to find better, faster, and safer aspects of the entire oral healthcare industry, including finding dental amalgam filling alternatives from the standard mercury-based option.
Improving the experience with check-in and check-out times, limiting the amount of time in the waiting room, having a better scheduling system, as well as providing quicker, better care should improve your patients’ attitudes and perspective toward your dental practice.
In other words, customer service is crucial to your practice. With the tools discussed earlier, your dental practice can incorporate a more efficient, customer service-oriented practice without skimping on the quality of care.
For the patient, the anxiety is already building just by the thought of having a medical visit. Minimizing that anxiety and focusing on the customer experience is a great way to build trust and improve the patient’s perspective of your care as a result.
