Recently, someone I knew through work reached out to let me know she had used one of Gozio’s client’s mobile apps. She wanted to share a story about how the app had made it so easy to find the nearest urgent care. It turned out it was closer than the one she thought was nearest to her. She would not have known there was a more convenient option if she hadn’t used her health system’s app. She was thrilled that it provided not only the distance to urgent care options around her but also the wait and ability to save a spot.
Urgent features like these are very popular for health systems that want to provide a better experience for patients and help them access the right sites for care. Our partners at Solv are experts in this area, and published a benchmarking report on urgent care excellence and patient satisfaction.
It probably isn’t a surprise that on-demand care options are important to today’s consumer. According to the report, “patients consistently search ‘urgent care’ on average 5 times more than other health searches such as primary care or family medicine.” It is a key service, and it can be an important entry point to the larger system.
Urgent care is highly competitive and to be successful, it is critical to consider patient satisfaction and consumer preferences. Over the course of three months, Solv’s Experience software surveyed and collected patient feedback from 170,000+ patients. Anonymous and de-identified survey results were used to analyze the average patient satisfaction scores for each clinic group, and sort out top performers.
This is what Solv learned about the top performers in this analysis:
- For top clinics, 97% of patients leaving feedback gave a 5-star rating. They also had the highest feedback collection rate among discharged patients: one out of three groups collected ratings from over 10% of their patients. This is important because patients want to see social proof in both quality and quantity when seeking out a healthcare provider.
- Those urgent cares with the highest patient satisfaction rankings see 20% more of their patients coming from online pre-bookings compared to those with lower rankings. Furthermore, 1 in 4 top-rated groups derive over 50% of patient volumes from online bookings.
- The top cohort is 30% more likely to see patients on time compared to clinics with lower patient satisfaction ratings. When patients are seen on time they are 4x more likely to leave a 5- star review.
The report shows clearly that access to same day appointments, the ability to book a spot online, and a reasonable wait time were critical factors for patients. And when these things exist, there is a higher likelihood of a clinic receiving a 5-star review. It creates a feedback loop that generates more business since both the quality and quantity of reviews matters to patients when choosing an urgent care.
Beyond a simple Google search, providing locations, wait times, ratings, and the ability to book appointments through a mobile app can help provide the best experience for patients while also keeping them in your health systems.
Read the full report on patient satisfaction and urgent care excellence to learn more.
