Improving Service Excellence in Healthcare

The ability of healthcare organizations to deliver high-quality clinical and administrative services depends in part on two factors:

• Their understanding of basic service excellence principles.
• Their ability to integrate these principles into clinical settings.

This topic brief reviews why excellent service is so critical and suggests some steps for achieving better service in healthcare settings.  

Why Worry About Service Excellence?

There are several reasons for healthcare organizations to pay attention to service excellence: 

• Better service translates into better experiences for patients.
• As in any other service industry, a satisfied (and loyal) patient creates value over the course of a lifetime. In the context of healthcare, this value may manifest itself in the form of repeat visits, trusting relationships, and positive word-of-mouth referrals. Word-of-mouth reputation is important because studies continue to find that the most trusted sources of information for people choosing a health plan, medical group, doctor, or hospital are close family, friends, and work colleagues.
• A dissatisfied patient, on the other hand, generates potential new costs. Patients who are not happy with their clinician or health plan may not follow clinical advice and can develop worse outcomes.^1,2 They are also likely to share their negative stories with friends and family members, which raises the risk of a negative “grapevine effect.” More than 50 percent of people who have a bad experience will not complain openly to their healthcare provider or health plan. Before social media was a factor, research indicated that nearly all (96 percent) were likely to tell at least 10 other people about their bad experiences.³ Now someone who had a poor experience can use social media to reach hundreds or thousands of people. 

Healthcare organizations also need to focus on service excellence because service quality and employee satisfaction go hand in hand. It is almost impossible to find high employee satisfaction in organizations where patient experience is poor. Organizations that place a premium on service excellence tend to have high employee satisfaction as well. Employees are often frustrated and angry about the same things that bother patients: chaotic work environments, poor systems, and ineffective training. No amount of money, signing bonuses, or other tools currently used to recruit hard-to-find staff will offset the negative impact of these problems on staff. The real cost of high turnover may not be the replacement costs of finding new staff, but the expenses associated with lost organizational knowledge, lower productivity, and poor experiences for patients. 

Advice on Delivering Service Excellence 

To deliver the best service possible, the most successful healthcare organizations invest in:

• People with an aptitude for service.
• Technology that supports frontline staff.
• Training practices that incorporate well-designed experiences for patients.
• Compensation linked to performance.

In particular, high-performing organizations recognize that their staff find value in being able to achieve good results. These organizations equip their staff to meet patients’ needs. For health plans, this could mean developing information systems that allow staff to answer patients’ questions and settle claims quickly and easily. For provider organizations, it could mean providing the resources and materials that clinicians need to provide high-quality care in a compassionate, safe environment. 

Experts on delivering service excellence suggest that healthcare organizations adopt the following set of guiding principles:⁴

• Hire service-savvy people.
• Establish high standards for service excellence.
• Help staff hear the voice of the customer.
• Remove barriers so staff can serve customers.
• Reduce anxiety to increase satisfaction.
• Help staff cope better in a stressful atmosphere.
• Maintain your focus on service. 

^1. Zolnierek KB, Dimatteo MR. Physician communication and patient adherence to treatment: A meta-analysis. Med Care 2009;47(8):826-834.

^2. Donneyong MM, Bynum M, Kemavor A, Crossnohere NL, Schuster A, Bridges J. Patient satisfaction with the quality of care received is associated with adherence to antidepressant medications. PLoS ONE 2024; 19(1): e0296062. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296062

^3. American Society for Quality. Basic Facts on Customer Complaint Behavior and the Impact of Service on the Bottom Line. Competitive Advantage: ASQ Newsletter; 1999.

^4. Leebov W, Scott G, Olson L. Achieving Impressive Customer Service: 7 Strategies for Healthcare Managers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass; 1998.