Webinar: Hospitality in Healthcare With Debbie Boone, CVPM

Say the word “hospitality,” and most people think of a hotel, a restaurant or even a warm welcoming home. But in fact, adopting a hospitality mindset can offer significant benefits to health and wellness practices and businesses.

In this on-demand webinar, Debbie Boone, CVPM, author of "Hospitality in Healthcare," shares how infusing top-notch hospitality into how you approach care can transform the experience for your team and for the patients or clients you serve.

Boone explains how any health and wellness provider — from the largest hospital to the smallest clinic — can provide better, more authentic hospitality, resulting in:

• Fewer complaints or bad reviews
• Happier staff and reduced turnover
• Improved patient compliance
• Increased patient satisfaction

“[Hospitality] is really about building a connection with others, whether it’s your guests, your patients and clients, members of your family or certainly your coworkers,” she says.

Finding a Sense of Purpose

One thing that successful practices have in common is a clear sense of purpose shared across staff, Boone notes.

While it might be easy to define the purpose of a cancer center or children’s hospital, any health or wellness practice likely has its own noble mission. That could be a veterinary practice working to help animals live a better life and support the human-animal bond or a chiropractor driven by the goal of helping people manage pain while reducing their reliance on medications.

Leaders can lay the groundwork for better hospitality in their health or wellness practice or business by defining what Boone calls their “big, hairy, audacious goal” and clearly communicating that purpose to staff, she says.

Recognizing the Power of Branding

Many independent practitioners consider their brand when they first open for business, then never think about it again, notes Boone.

However, branding plays an important role in the hospitality experience by setting an expectation in the mind of a patient or client.

“Branding is more than logos,” she notes. Everything from the parking lot to the colors and decor in your waiting room to the patient's financial journey can play a role in creating that first impression and setting expectations.

Employee retention can also strengthen a provider’s brand, Boone adds, since seeing the same staff members at every visit can make patients feel comfortable and safe.

Building a Superior Patient Experience

A great way to begin the process of improving your organization’s hospitality is by understanding your baseline. Start by checking out social media comments or online reviews. This can tell you what your team is already doing well, as well as give you an honest assessment of how you can improve the client experience.

Boone recommends focusing on one area of improvement at a time and leveraging your entire team when making changes. For example, if long wait times are a frequent complaint, focus on that. Study your existing workflow to see where it can be streamlined, work with staff to implement changes and then track results so you can measure your improvement.

Practicing Active Listening

With training and practice, health and wellness providers can make even difficult visits a positive experience for the patient or client through active listening, Boone says.

“Active listening is the way to a better doctor-patient relationship, more accurate diagnosis and improved patient compliance,” she explains.

She notes that patient misbehavior and rudeness can be a major issue for health and wellness clinic staff. It’s also a top reason for firing patients, resulting in significant lost revenue over time.

Compassionate listening and hospitality training can help buffer your practice or business against those potential risks by defusing frustration and managing conflict. Staff should remember that patients or clients “are not the enemy,” Boone says.

“Never allow your team to dehumanize patients,” she adds, such as by calling them “idiots” or “jerks” when letting off steam. This only makes staff feel comfortable responding with their own rudeness, escalating potential conflicts.

Training the Hospitality Mindset

Boone outlines three pillars of hospitality that can be applied in a healthcare or wellness setting:

1. Observe. Think about how a server at a fine restaurant pays attention to signs that diners are ready to order, want another drink or need their plates cleared. Clinic staff can do the same — such as by looking for signs that patients are confused, frustrated or worried — and having a plan for how to manage those issues.

2. Personalize. Providers can recognize that what pleases one person may aggravate another. Some patients or clients may prioritize a short wait time, while others may care more about a warm and welcoming staff. Getting to know clients as individuals and looking for ways to meet their unique needs are great ways to improve patient satisfaction, Boone says.

3. Anticipate. Think ahead about things you can do to improve the patient experience. This could include:

• Offering coffee, tea or water in your waiting room
• Offering patient financing options to help improve the patient payment experience
• Providing patients with more comfortable gowns that leave them fully covered

And remember, the hospitality mindset can and should also be applied to coworkers, Boone says. Respect and kindness can improve morale and boost retention.

Diving Deeper Into the Patient Journey

Other topics Boone addresses in the webinar include how to:

• Convince difficult team members to embrace the hospitality mindset
• Increase morale and adoption of the hospitality mindset across your team
• Provide genuine hospitality in stressful or fast-paced environments like emergency departments
• Design interview questions that help identify new hires with strong hospitality skills

The Evidence for Hospitality in Healthcare

Providing better hospitality in health and wellness settings isn’t just a feel-good move, it’s also good for business, Boone notes.

Several studies show that higher patient satisfaction leads to improved loyalty and more referrals, she explains. “Learning hospitality skills in the medical world is something practices can invest time and effort into with the knowledge that their return on investment is assured."

Offer Flexible Financing at Your Practice

If you are looking for a way to connect your patients or clients with flexible financing that empowers them to pay for the care they want and need, consider offering CareCredit as a financing solution. CareCredit allows cardholders to pay for out-of-pocket health and wellness expenses over time while helping enhance the payments process for your practice or business.

When you accept CareCredit, patients or clients can see if they prequalify with no impact to their credit score, and those who apply, if approved, can take advantage of special financing on qualifying purchases.* Additionally, you will be paid directly within two business days.

Learn more about the CareCredit credit card as a financing solution or start the provider enrollment process by filling out this form.

Author Bio

Ilima Loomis is a freelance writer with more than 18 years of experience in journalism and B2B content marketing. With a background in writing about science and technology, she has a knack for taking on complex subjects and helping readers understand not only what is going on but why it relates to them. She specializes in writing about healthcare, health tech and medical research.