As healthcare providers, you always want to deliver the best possible care to your patients.
However, as times change, so do your patients’ expectations about your service delivery. It’s important to adapt to these changes and make sure that your healthcare service delivery matches the demands of the industry and your patients.
Service delivery improvements are an essential process in any healthcare facility. That’s because the better your service delivery is, the better your patient service quality will be – which then boosts customer loyalty, and ultimately, the profitability of your organisation.
This is where Service Design consultancy comes in.
In this article, we’ll talk about the Service Design process and the steps you can follow to smoothly introduce this approach to your organisation and improve your healthcare service delivery.
Read on to learn more.
What is Service Design?
Service Design is a creative and practical way to assess, improve and innovate your existing service or help you design new services. Service Design is the method of planning and implementing practical changes to meet the needs of all the users of your services – in your case, your patients but also your staff and healthcare professionals too.
Service Design is a consultative approach that factors everything from the beginning to the end of your patients’ journey through design principles, people and processes. It allows you to deliver customer-centric services that lead to overall business success, based on an empathetic understanding of all requirements, including staff, team members, management and patients.
At NEXA, we have helped implement Service Design at over 100 hospitals and healthcare facilities across Australia – all of which say that it is a key part of their success.
5 benefits of Service Design for a healthcare organisation
Simply put, Service Design improves your service delivery to make the experience better for your patients, your staff and your healthcare facility as a whole.
Here are just some of the things that Service Design can help you achieve within your clinic or healthcare facility:
- Service Design gets all the right people involved
Since it is a consultative process, it factors in the experiences of all your patients, staff and other key stakeholders when assessing the quality and efficiency of service delivery.
- Service Design starts meaningful conversations
It creates an opportunity to discuss all the aspects of the business that need improvement and encourages idea generation for practical solutions.
- Service Design provides external, objective feedback
As external consultants like NEXA are involved in this process, your organisation can get a fresh, expert perspective on your service delivery.
- Service Design allows you to identify the healthcare technology you need
The key deliverables for Service Design include device placement documentation, which helps you identify the tools you need such as kiosks or patient management platforms, and how they fit into your facility.
- Service Design helps identify the best patient flow management solutions for you
One of the end goals of Service Design is to identify solutions that will minimise wait times, improve patient experiences and boost operational efficiencies in your healthcare facility.
With the right team onboard and the proper execution, your team can experience these benefits and deliver the care that your patients deserve.
How can you introduce Service Design to internal management?
Now that we’ve discussed what Service Design can do for your healthcare facility, the next part is to get the other decision-makers within the organisation to be on the same page.
To do this, we suggest these six simple steps:
- Identify the people who need to be involved
A great starting point would be to find out who makes the decision about implementing changes for the medical facility and invite them to participate.
- Educate the team about Service Design
Because Service Design is not an intuitively interpreted term, its purpose can often confuse people. So, it’s important to clarify what Service Design is.
- Explain the benefits of Service Design
Then, highlight what Service Design can do for the organisation – feel free to use the examples we’ve outlined above. Just make sure to contextualise these benefits to fit your healthcare facility’s unique needs.
- Connect with Service Design experts
This is where Service Design experts like NEXA come in. With the guidance of experts, you’ll have a reliable partner and the objective input of an external team about how you can optimise your operations and improve the patient experience.
- Organise a meeting between the two teams
Once you have explained the basics, you can now organise a meeting with the Service Design experts and the decision-makers in your organisation to firm up the details and get started on the process.
- Have a follow-up system in place
We have discussed in a previous blog about the myths and truths of Service Design that it is not an instant solution. So, it’s important to have a reliable system in place to keep the conversation going and make sure that the solution achieves its purpose today, tomorrow and long into the future.
At NEXA, our commitment is to make every healthcare facility an efficient and reliable one for Australians. We take part in this journey through a consultative approach that helps you improve your patient experience and your organisation as a whole.
Are you ready to improve your patient experience with Service Design?
At NEXA, we understand the importance that your healthcare facility places on providing the best possible service and experience for every patient – every single day.
That’s why we’re here to help.
NEXA is an Australian company that delivers innovative digital solutions to empower healthcare providers, staff members and patients by taking advantage of digital technology. With NEXA, you can support and enable your team, deliver excellent service levels and thrive in today’s evolving landscape.
Do you want to experience the benefits that come with implementing Service Design into your healthcare facility?
Talk to us today to find out how you can make your patient interactions matter.
