Accessibility to healthcare has been one of the top agendas of the US government in the last decade. Universal healthcare is the post-2015 development agenda and has three aspects of accessibility – physical, financial, and acceptability. The initiatives focus on ensuring patients get the care and services they need every time.
Healthcare facilities need to be within reasonable physical reach, and patients should not be constrained by a lack of funds when seeking services. In addition, the health facility services should be acceptable to the users. Accessible and convenient healthcare is critical in providing medical services and for patients to receive treatment.
The benefits of accessible & convenient healthcare cannot be over-emphasized. The health sector has impacted many people by implementing initiatives to ensure that barriers to accessibility are removed or controlled. Ascertain your clinic is in tandem with the practices. The critical milestones of delivering accessible and convenient healthcare are as follows.
Better Care
Better care accessibility is about improving the quality of services patients receive when they visit your clinic. The service aspects include setting up the appointment, visiting the premises, administrative & clinical services, pharmacy, etc. Different patients need varied care, and it is the onus of the health center to discern their unique needs.
For example, chronic conditions require ongoing treatment and management, and the clinic must maintain accurate and up-to-date patient records. Modern advancements ensure easy accessibility of patient records from one health facility to the next.
Getting exemplary care at clinics enhances the health state of patients. Health professionals must help people with long-term illnesses to manage their conditions to improve the quality of their lives. Some complications usually result from negligence or poor conditions in a health center. Such a situation is avoidable when you have superior care for patients.
Improved Health Outcomes
Improved health outcomes are a critical milestone in delivering accessible & convenient healthcare. The outcome refers to patients getting the best possible result from treatment and hospital visits. The patient feels physically, mentally, and psychologically uplifted. In addition, health centers provide preventive care and screenings to avoid some diseases.
To enhance improved healthcare outcomes for your clinic, you must have efficient and effective systems working to deliver the goal. If you need more clarification on the capabilities of your health center, consider training from an accredited institution like the American Association of Professional Coders (AAPC).
The AAPC trains medical coders, billers, and other healthcare professionals. Your health center can then be up to par with other institutions receiving accolades for delivering accessible & convenient healthcare and customer satisfaction.
Reduced Costs
The affordability of medical care is a chief barrier to accessing quality health services in the US. Many people suffer complications or do not access needed services because they cannot afford to go to a hospital. Focus on reducing health expenditure is a pertinent discussion in the health sector.
There are many reasons accessing health services is expensive, e.g., drug costs, hospital administrative overheads, costly professionals, waste, lack of adequate disease preventive mechanisms, etc. In the past decade, the healthcare sector has achieved significant milestones in reducing Medicare costs.
Healthcare costs are reducible in many ways. Some expenditures may be beyond your control as a healthcare practitioner, but there are others you can keep in check. For example, having a preventative care mechanism in your clinic helps patients cut the costs of treating chronic illnesses. You identify and treat diseases at their early stages before needing exorbitant and lifetime treatment.
Saving Time
Waiting time is an exasperating service aspect for many people who go through it when they visit healthcare centers. Technology has enabled the medical fraternity to reduce waiting times by replacing manual systems with automated ones in institutions. Many health centers now have drastically reduced turnaround times between procedures like diagnosis, lab testing, and treatment.
Waiting for a process can compromise the patient’s health outcome when in dire straits. In addition, people seeking health services are in a fragile emotional state, requiring quick services to alleviate their dented mental state. Keeping such people waiting aggravates them and can compromise a healing process.
Assess your clinic for the culprits causing delays and take corrective measures. Replace people-intensive processes by digitizing to optimize customer service.
Improved Quality of Life
Improved quality of life is a critical success factor for a healthcare system. Accessible and convenient healthcare should deliver more impactful care for patients. Health institutions endeavor to better the lives of their patients by embracing initiatives like early treatment protocols, providing preventative care, specialized management of long-term conditions, etc. Patients are more likely to feel welcome when they encounter such intimate care in clinics.
Invest in providing the best possible care your clinic can. If you have a high traffic of patients, consider a customer management system like a call center to manage patient issues. Some service aspects do not require the patient to visit the clinic, and you can provide solutions for them through a call, email, or chat service.
Delivering Accessible Healthcare
Delivering an accessible and convenient healthcare service in your clinic is not a far-fetched dream. You can make it a reality by knowing the critical health service aspects and enabling your health center to excel by improving them.
Take stock of the facets you want to transform and take one step at a time in changing them. Also, identify quick wins that help you celebrate as you look forward to the bigger bets.