Companies like Amazon, Netflix, Apple and AirBnB have a strong commonality. They all understand the importance of delivering value and providing a uniquely convenient experience. And because of that, people quickly become loyal users of their services.
The most effective way to measure customer satisfaction? Net Promoter Score (NPS). Consumers are asked one simple question:
On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our practice to a friend or family member?
Responses are then collected and calculated into a score that determines overall customer satisfaction and loyalty.
But what about healthcare?
Not surprisingly, as healthcare shifts its focus towards improved patient experiences and customized care, NPS plays a critical role in addressing hurdles in this movement.
DispatchHealth, a rapidly growing startup that delivers advanced medical care to patients at home, has adapted an on-demand business model that exceeds consumer expectations.
In turn, their patient satisfaction is off-the-charts high at +95, according to the latest Net Promoter Score (NPS) rankings.
This is almost unheard of in healthcare. In fact, average healthcare ratings are +30. DispatchHealth’s score is well above the threshold of world-class performance according to a questionpro blogpost noting that “above 70 is considered ‘world class.’”
A May 2019 reliasmedia.com article interviewing DispatchHealth Chief Marketing Officer Andrea Pearson notes that the +95 NPS measures customers’ willingness to recommend services, and shows satisfaction and loyalty levels: “A healthcare organization is finding success with using a measure of customer satisfaction to drive quality improvement. DispatchHealth, a company based in Denver that facilitates home delivery of healthcare services, performs well on its net promoter score (NPS).”
This stands in stark contrast to a headline from a
GE Healthcare Camden Group report stating, “
An alarming 81% of consumers are unsatisfied with their healthcare experience.”
Pearson points out in the reliasmedia.com article that “
The net promoter score is a measure of whether we are really delivering quality care and creating a base of loyalty among the patients we treat.”
She adds that a “holistic approach allows the company to assess the patient’s home life, considering social determinants of care, and customers benefit from being able to stay home when receiving care.”
Good for patients and providers
Obviously positive for patients, these high NPS numbers also instill confidence in others involved in a patient’s continuum of care – from primary care physicians to living facilities.
The NPS site netpromotersystem.com notes that NPS leaders on average grow at more than twice the rate of competitors. Bain’s NPS is based on the fundamental perspective that every company’s customers can be divided into three categories. “Promoters” are loyal enthusiasts who keep buying from a company and urge their friends to do the same.
Factors driving DispatchHealth’s +95 NPS
Four major criteria account for these unusually high scores: Fast, convenient in-home response. DispatchHealth’s house call services can conveniently be requested via phone, mobile app, or through the company’s website and their board-certified healthcare providers typically arrive at the patient’s home within a few hours. Time spent in the home with quality interactions. Once there, Pearson points out in the reliasmedia.com article: “We spend an average of 45 minutes in a person’s home, and that is about four times the average patient encounter in an emergency room or a clinic. We don’t set any expectations for our employees for how much time they should spend with a patient.”
She adds, “Our guidelines only say that they should spend as much time as they need to in order to address all the needs of that patient.”This promotes the importance of personal connection, addressed in an April Harvard Business Review article cautioning about technology: “Yet many companies in high-anxiety settings – like financial services and healthcare – are funneling nervous customers to self-service technologies (“SSTs”) – kiosks, websites, and smartphone apps – isolating them at the precise moment when they’re most keen for connection.” Quality, ER-level care. Besides showing the results of patient connection, NPS is “the primary metric that the company communicates to staff,”
Pearson says. She adds, “Whether you work in revenue cycle management or you’re a nurse practitioner, you understand that we hold ourselves to a bar that is quite high in terms of delivering a great experience and providing something that will create loyalty over time.” Each medical kit brought onsite contains roughly 70 percent of the tools and technologies found in an ER, allowing the medical team to perform a variety of advanced tests and treatments, ranging from blood tests, a 12-lead EKG, IV fluids and more. To ensure continuity of care, DispatchHealth provides a detailed report to each patient’s living community, home health agency and/or primary care physician, in addition to electronically sending prescriptions to a patient’s pharmacy if needed. Affordability. With commercially-insured and Medicare patients paying $6-$45 out of pocket for a DispatchHealth house call, it’s benefit that the ER can’t come close to matching. In fact, the medical cost for a DispatchHealth visit is nearly one tenth of the medical cost for the average ER visit.
That disparity is increasingly impacting decisions about trips to the ER. A May 2019 vox.com article states directly, “America’s high prices are scaring patients away from using the emergency room.”
Pearson emphasizes in the reliasmedia.com article, “Any healthcare organization might improve its NPS by responding more to the same sentiments that yield a high score for DispatchHealth.” To find out more about where healthcare is heading, check out
