Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and AT&T estimates that nearly 123 million will call Mom that day--in percentage terms, 68 percent of people in the U.S. will call Mom to say hello that day.   Ask yourself, though, what makes Mom feel special?  Is it the one call on a day when everyone feels obligated to touch base with Mom, or all the calls in between?    The answer is obvious, and that rule might apply to patients, too.

More studies show that the key to preventing hospital readmissions is contacting patients within the first week following discharge.  That’s a great idea that needs to be more universally implemented.  However, in an era when patient satisfaction is becoming almost as important as preventing readmissions, contacting patients only after they’re discharged may seem like the bare minimum effort…like the call on Mother’s Day. 

Maintaining some sort of consistent connection with patients will likely be a key ingredient to improving the patient experience overall, since we know that the definition of “the patient experience” is expanding beyond the actual acute care stay or outpatient visit.    Health care providers that can build a connection with their patients and potential patients will fare better than those that don’t.  Prioritizing patient contacts means your organization will have to abide by spam laws and no-call rules, but it can be done….if you focus on capturing the information and permissions you need as patients engage your services early in the care process.

As I’ve stated before, I believe one of the major trends that will come from health care reform, now that it’s finally passed, is the development of accountable care organizations.  By their nature, ACOs will require some sort of frequent communication with patients between visits.   If promotional mail is filtered out, and email systems are clogged, the phone may be the best and most personal tool for hospitals that want to connect with and market to patients and potential patients.

For an acute care hospital with an active patient base of about 50,000--the base being defined as the number of individuals treated as inpatients or outpatients within the last 12 months--it’s actually possible to call all of them once each year, if you have a team of six callers working every day in eight-hour shifts.  During these calls, you could discuss their last stay, any new health issues, and recommend preventive or diagnostic screenings.   How realistic is this scenario?   For most hospitals, this approach would not be realistic, nor very useful in terms of helping patients manage their health, because not all of these patients would need or appreciate that sort of call.  However, there would be a tremendous ROI, both in improving satisfaction and increasing patient long-term loyalty. 

The key is to develop a patient contact strategy, determining which patient subset is appropriate to call and setting up the systems to support those patients’ needs, such as scheduling, etc.  One thing I don’t recommend when calling patients -- don’t be like the 3 percent of people who call collect on Mother’s Day!