Improving Patient Retention and Satisfaction Using SEER

A hospital is only as good as the satisfaction of the patients that avail its services. A happy patient can recommend the hospital to their friends and family creating a profitable environment for the hospital.

However, we read and hear a lot of stories about people’s negative experiences with hospitals and the bureaucracy behind hospital procedures. As we looked closer into patient satisfaction in hospitals, we identified that fluctuating hospital bills and uncertainty in the length-of-stay (LoS) at the hospital creates uneasiness and anxiety in the patient’s mind. Maximising hospital revenue alongside improving patient retention and patient satisfaction is a delicate balance for a hospital to attain and is often misconstrued as mutually exclusive.

Interdependency of LoS and Bill Estimates

Hospitals, generally, estimate the LoS to be an average of the LoS from past patient records. In one of our studies at a hospital, we found 80% of CABG (Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting) surgery patients either under-stayed or over-stayed at the hospital. This resulted in patients facing problems of varying bill amounts and having to rearrange the necessary funds all over again implying that incorrect bill amounts are a function of varying LoS, showing an obvious interconnectedness between these issues.

From this one instance alone, out of the many, it’s clear that taking an average LoS as the estimate is very inaccurate. Moreover, the longer a patient stays in a hospital, the more unhappy they become. We recognised that a novel approach was necessary to estimate the LoS accurately and reliably, and hence also reduce the fluctuation of bill amounts. So we took it upon ourselves to solve the problem of inaccurate length-of-stay estimates and hospital bill amounts, bringing SEER to life!   

SEER – The Ultimate in Hospital Bill Estimation and Patient Retention

SEER is an AI/ML-powered predictive analysis tool helping hospitals maximise profitability while improving patient retention and satisfaction through accurate bill amount evaluation and length-of-stay estimation at a patient level, during the patient’s admission.

But how does it work?

The algorithm behind SEER is trained in past patients’ clinical data, demographical data and the types of surgeries that the patients went through. Once training is complete, SEER can accurately estimate the length-of-stay and the hospital bills for individual patients.

Importance of SEER

As healthcare reforms worldwide constantly evolve, there is an increased reliance on hospitals’ accounting practices to ensure patient satisfaction. In a hospital’s pursuit of efficiency, transparency and patient trust, it is crucial that patients know the exact costs and duration of a hospital’s various services. By providing accurate and relevant cost estimations as well as consistent and reliable length-of-stay estimates, SEER, therefore, becomes fundamental for care providers to establish sustainable profitability.

Let’s now see how SEER benefits patients and hospitals!

SEER and Care Providers

SEER ensures hospitals are free of the logistical burdens when newer patients are admitted and existing inpatients leave while maintaining profitability and patient satisfaction.

• Patient Prioritisation:
  During 100% occupancy, doctors can prioritise the patients based on their profitability using the generated bill estimates.
• Patient Discounts:
  Hospitals can provide discounts to patients whose estimated bill amount is lesser than the service package amount, ensuring patient retention.
• Better Informed Patients:
  If the estimated revenue is higher than the package amount, then doctors can provide a more timely consultation to the patients and better inform them of the reasons behind the changes in the bill amount.
• Hospital Resource Efficiency:
  When a patient under-stays, there are wasted hospital resources while inpatient over-staying causes overlapping of the required resources with other patients’ needs. With SEER, hospitals can better schedule staff and efficiently arrange inventory like beds, medical instruments, etc., to prevent overlap and inconveniences caused due to resource unavailability.
• Patient Leakage:
  By providing accurate bill amount and duration of stay immediately during admission, patients can make a calculated and reliable decision in choosing facilities and services, reducing patient leakage and improving patient retention.
• Patient Satisfaction:
  SEER creates an environment of transparency and trust between the hospital and the patient, through exact bill amounts and LOS estimates.

SEER and Patients

As much as SEER is a tool created with doctors and hospital administrators in mind, it ensures patients have a comfortable and worry-free experience at the hospital.

• Compare Hospital Services: Patients can compare the services of different hospitals based on the length-of-stay, as patients would tend to stay for as short a duration as possible.
• Patient Stay Scheduling: By knowing the exact duration of stay, patients can better plan their stay and visitors can schedule visits accordingly.
• Transparency through Clear and Concise Bills: SEER allows patients to make informed financial arrangements, whatever be the mode of payment.

Future of SEER

The core vision behind SEER is to reduce the overall time a patient spends at a hospital. By improving current features and developing new features for SEER, we aim to create a comprehensive tool, realising our vision.

There is a long way to go before we can call it a complete tool and here are a few things currently in the works!

• Operating Theatre Scheduling
• Bed scheduling
• Inpatient/Outpatient Demand Forecast

SEER is one in our catalogue of AI/ML powered tools to aid the efficacy of the medical industry as a whole. If you are interested in adopting SEER or would like to know anything more about it or any of our other products, feel free to contact us at hello@mycol.in and join the CoL family!