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I was reading HealthLeaders Magazine, where they were talking about all the different things some hospitals across the country are trying to do to make the hospital experience better for patients. Some of the things these hospitals are doing are pretty good, I must say, while others are more for the benefit of the hospital than the patient, no matter how much some hospitals try to sugar coat the processes.

At this point in my life I’ve been in health care almost 28 years, and I’ve seen a lot of things. I’ve talked to a lot of patients and a lot of hospital personnel, including non-managers, directors or administrative staff. I’ve also talked to a lot of physicians, both those in hospitals and those in private practice, in professional and personal situations. And I’ve done some thinking of my own about things, and believe I’ve come up with 5 things that patients really want. Here they are, with a caveat; some of these things there’s nothing that can be done about them.

1. Patients want to know what’s going on. They want to know what’s contained in their medical record. They want their physicians to tell them what’s wrong with them, no matter how small it might be. They want someone to explain to them why they’re having certain tests done, and they want to know what those tests will tell the doctor. They want to know what information of theirs is shared with other doctors or nurses. Overall, they just want to know why they have to do things they’re told they have to do, no matter what.

2. Patients hate having to continuously fill out all this paperwork. I’m actually going through something like this myself right now with different physicians groups I’m seeing that are all affiliated. Most of them are affiliated with the same hospital; they set up the appointments. Why aren’t they sharing my information so I don’t have to keep writing out the same information time and time again? Why is it that when I copy one sheet for all of them that contains the same information they have to have it on their own sheet?

Going further, why are there so many forms patients have to fill out for hospitals and physicians? Actually, this one I know; because both state and federal governments require this stuff. Medicare is the worst for patients; there are tons of forms they have to have completed at least once a year. You fill out all this paperwork for the government, and for the protection of the hospitals and the physicians, and so hospitals and physicians can get paid.

3. Patients want extraordinary customer service. Unlike going to Macy’s, no one willingly walks into a hospital or physician’s office and asks for care; no, not even hypochondriacs. No matter what level of care you’re getting or from whom, it’s somewhat stressful. I say that as I went to a lab to have blood drawn last week, and had the phlebotomist probe one of my arms for about 5 minutes before determining she couldn’t find the vein, and had to go to the other arm. Suffice it to say that though I inject myself twice a day, I still flinch when having blood drawn; at least this time around she was nice, but that’s not always the case.

If a patient is an inpatient, they want to see a nurse on a more regular basis than twice in 8 hours. They don’t care that there are other patients, they care that they’re stuck in a room and no one is stopping in to check on them. They want to see a physician more than once a day. They want to have at least a couple of choices in their meals. And, of course, you remember point number one up there, right?

4. Patients want a better understanding of hospital charges. Of course I just wrote about hospital charges. I’ve written twice over the years about what’s known as price transparency and what it was, then about how, when it’s practiced, turns out patients don’t really care. In a way, it’s kind of like not caring about all the intricacies concerning their insurance; they just want to know if what they’re about to have done is going to be covered or not.

I tend to believe that if patients are told, whenever possible, what the costs of the services they’re about to have are, estimated of course (since things can, and often do change), and how much insurance is going to cover, and possibly talk about the relationship between what’s actually billed, allowances, and actual cash paid, along with charity care options for those that needed it, that it would make more patients understand the process, or at least feel more comfortable with it all. Of course, this will cost a lot of money to hire and train people to do it, and also takes a lot of work figuring all of these things in advance, but if a hospital or physician’s office really cared they’d do it. And I’m saying this as I received a bill today from a physician’s office with the balance I owe, and even though it’s not super high I’m still somewhat stunned by how little my insurance paid that my physician’s had to accept, and how high the percentage is that I now have to pay.

5. Patients want to know where and who to go to for any questions or concerns they have, and they want it to be easy. On this front, I know many hospitals have tried many things, some that work and some that don’t. In the magazine, there was mention of the CEO of the UCLA Health System who actually makes rounds himself, being a physician, and will drop his card off to many patients telling them they can call him at any time, 24/7, if they have any issue at all with their care.

Years ago when I was still working at one of the hospitals, we instituted a program where the person who registered a patient for an inpatient stay gave them their card and said that if there were any concerns over financial obligations that they could contact that person at any time. I wanted to extend it to any questions or complaints in general, but I couldn’t push that one through. However, at a different hospital I was at we had it set up so that clinical coordinators would try to do all follow up with patients to try to address their concerns. Our issue was that no clinical coordinators worked on the weekends, so there was a deficiency that we continued to miss. Still, we gave it a shot.

Of course, patients want more things, but I’m stopping there. I’d love to hear people’s opinions on this one, so please feel free to share.