Patient Journey Mapping

If we are honest, everyone knows that the healthcare industry in the UK is entirely reliant on reliable options. Practices face stiff competition from small and big players. Regulating the patient experience in a medical setting is often challenging.

Many patients either leave or look for better options after receiving unsatisfactory services. Patient retention is everything for the survival of healthcare businesses.

People expect better engagement, easy navigation, and an excellent patient experience with their provider. Companies that fall short of these expectations often lose business and market positions.

You need patient journey mapping to understand patients’ experiences and fulfil their expectations. It provides complete information on every interaction with your medical facility.

Healthcare professionals can be more empathetic towards the patients and contribute towards a better experience.

This blog is the perfect place to learn all about patient journey mapping. You will learn how to create a customer journey map with your existing resources.

Savvy healthcare marketers know that today’s consumers are unique. They won’t look for generic solutions in a market total of options. Patients are motivated to conduct extensive research while selecting a provider. 

Patient journey maps are essential for today’s value-driven consumers. Health systems must work on creating tremendous patient experiences. We need higher conversion between journey stages and patient retention. 

Practices map the patient journey to understand the end-to-end customer experience. They examine every minute detail to find areas for improvement. Each journey may be different. We need journey-mapping techniques to meet patient expectations. 

However, prior research lets you understand the complexities of each journey. For example, one journey might start with a simple web search and end with an ongoing medication schedule. At the same time, the other journey might begin from the hospital itself and end at billing. 

The main aim is to make patients loyal to your organization and maintain the continuity of care. 

Implementing patient journey maps in their practice provides professionals with multiple benefits. They gain access to the complete picture of the healthcare experience, helping them understand the needs and concerns of each patient.

Here are some key benefits; 

Drastic Improvement in Communication

Any patient journey map aims to understand your patients’ actual experiences. It must consider every touchpoint in its overall journey with the practice. 

Quality research helps patients express their feelings to researchers. You can drastically improve communication between healthcare providers and patients.  An accurate depiction of the experience is vital to resolve patient concerns. 

Professionals can build positive relationships with patients by understanding their mindset. The data from patient journey maps can show the pros and cons of the communication process. Accurate mapping can also help reduce the use of medical jargon in interactions. 

Better Display of Empathy and Emotional Connection 

We know that healthcare is a sensitive industry. Professionals must show a degree of empathy towards their patients. Most patient journey mapping research focuses on building a sense of empathy across all stakeholders. 

Follow up with patients to provide additional details if you ask participants to share their experiences. 

Better Patient Experience and Satisfaction 

Creating patient journey maps doesn’t immediately improve satisfaction levels. However, you can act on the insights and remove the gaps in the experience. 

The insights from the maps let you highlight the positive and negative aspects of your patient interactions. Professionals can overcome the recurring pain points in a patient flow. 

These ongoing steps will improve the services for patient satisfaction. You must take proactive measures to understand the condition of each patient in your pipeline. 

Get Continous Patient Care 

Any treatment plan has multiple stages. Practices must streamline their ongoing patient care. Patient journey maps can simplify workflows, staff members, and care providers. 

It removes uncertainties from a patient’s care journey. For example, overbooked appointments are often a significant problem in medical settings, and slow processes only lead to adverse patient feelings. 

Patient journey mapping ensures smoother and continuous patient care. Practices need this to overcome negative perceptions. 

Enable Personalized Care

A one-size-fits-all approach never works in a healthcare setting. Every patient has different needs and concerns, so we must provide personalized services to fulfil their requirements.

Patient journey maps let you integrate patient data with business models. This method works flawlessly to personalize the patient experience with your practice.

Turn-out rates can automatically increase when you personalize the patient journey. For example, personalized direct mail gives you a better response from patients.

Providers can Improve Patient Retention and Profitability 

Patient journey mapping improves your efforts in time management for each customer. Healthcare professionals can introduce innovation through; 

• Pre-booking appointments
• Digital laboratory reports
• Online consultations
• Telehealth applications

These measures in a medical setting provide growth opportunities and consistent revenues. For example, a healthcare organization can experience higher patient retention with precise journey maps.

 Also Read: Effective Patient Communication

We must realize that each patient’s journey can be unique. For example, a cancer patient’s journey map may differ from a diabetes one.

However, covering every touchpoint in a patient journey map is vital. You can take a look at this guide to patient journey mapping to understand better;

Stage 1: Creating Awareness Among Patients

How will a patient realize the need for care? Where can they find your healthcare facility? A patient journey typically begins with a search for care providers on the web.

Many individuals also consider word of mouth or referrals when discovering a caregiver. Marketing campaigns, networking, review sites, and community involvement can also be the initial touchpoint.

Stage 2: Considering the Healthcare Practice 

Patients will have multiple options to choose from. They will only select your practice if your health system meets their needs. It is vital to understand the various factors that might influence their decision. Experts often point out the following common points; 

• Coverage 
• Benefits 
• Technology 
• Referrals 
• Recommendations 
• Access
• Reviews
• Healthcare team

However, this isn’t the end of the story. So many other components can change their decision. Patients would interact with your website, social media page, contact number, or healthcare professional at this stage. 

You must have as many channels as possible to accept inquiries. It improves the chances of discovery and consideration. 

Stage 3: Accessing Medical Services 

The patient will decide whether to schedule services with your practice. Professionals must ensure higher engagement in this stage, the most critical stage in the patient journey map. 

You can implement different methods to engage patients. Emails, direct mail, text messages, and patient portals can all be part of patient acquisition and scheduling. 

Stage 4: Delivery and Execution of Services 

This stage covers the implementation of the clinical care provided to the patients. A patient journey map must consider the following aspects; 

• Clinical visit 
• Check-in and check-out 
• Admission and discharge 
• Diagnosis 
• Treatment 
• Medication 
• Billing
  

This stage of patient journey mapping is highly dependent on the satisfaction rate. To improve the overall experience, you must ensure the smoothest delivery of care. 

Stage 5: Ongoing Care for a Better Patient Experience

The final stage refers to the ongoing care the patient receives after the service delivery. Many providers lose customers by neglecting the importance of this specific stage of the patient journey map. 

This stage may address social determinants of health and population health. If you focus more on this stage of the patient journey, retention may improve. 

Knowing four types of patient journey maps while creating your map will clear the confusion and give better direction to your research. Each map has a specific purpose.

Start your patient journey mapping with a single type to avoid misdirection. Later, you can add more as your efforts progress. 

Current State

A current-state patient journey map explains what patients do, think, or feel while interacting with your firm. This type of map requires precise patient and observation data. 

It is the perfect option to introduce incremental improvements to improve the patient experience. You can constantly enhance specific aspects of their journeys. 

Future State

A future-state patient journey map explains what your patients will do, think, and feel shortly. These maps allow you to capture the ideal journey you predict for your patients. 

Many practices use a future state map to implement strategies, align teams, and communicate different visions. Overall, it brings innovation to processes, experiences, and services. 

Day in the Life 

This patient journey map explains what your patients do, think, and feel today within a specific situation. Practices can use these maps to create unique patient personas and customer segments. 

At each stage of the patient journey, each customer might react differently. It essentially captures their thought process inside and outside the healthcare system. 

Day-in-the-life maps are also necessary to fulfil unmet needs. It provides a proper direction on how you can better engage your patients.   

Service Blueprint 

It refers to a simplified diagram of a current or future state patient journey map. Professionals use service blueprints to illustrate; 

• People 
• Processes 
• Technologies 
• Policies 
• Regulations

They can understand how these factors can affect each patient touchpoint. Service blueprints also help in explaining the root reasons for pain points. We need them in the right place to implement the intended patient experience. 

Every qualitative and quantitative research method faces some challenges. Professionals often experience various hurdles in patient journey mapping. We must outline these hardships before our research design. 

Here are some common challenges that you may encounter during your research; 

Implementation of the Map 

Professionals new to patient journey mapping research find designing and implementing hard. Selecting the best design and strategy for your patient journey map study is never easy. 

There could be constant confusion among the professionals drafting the map. We recommend getting input from all stakeholders. Each individual can provide a unique perspective to build a holistic knowledge base of the ideal patient journey. 

You can quickly learn about different patient segments and touchpoints with their intervention. Real-world experience is always better than theoretical knowledge, and they can provide legitimate information directly from their fieldwork. 

Diverse Patient Needs and Experiences 

Ideal patient journey mapping requires an understanding of varying experiences. However, it is often hard for companies with limited experience and staff. 

They must first put their efforts into learning the characteristics of their current patients. A patient journey must be inclusive of all patient types. Expert healthcare professionals know patients have different healthcare needs. 

They often recommend that others develop a journey map for both in-patients and out-patients. A considerable amount of understanding of the patients is necessary to find valuable insights for each experience. 

For example, a diabetes patient journey map will differ from others. You need a complete understanding of different patient groups in your practice. 

Participant Engagement 

It is difficult to predict how patients will engage with your research. Different types of research are available, including ethnographic research and video diary studies. Inactive engagement with your research will result in incomplete tasks. 

You will only be back at the drawing board. Thus, experts prefer using qualitative research methods to overcome this challenge. 

We don’t need a large sample of patients to participate in such mapping research. Therefore, be very mindful when designing the tasks for your participants. 

Professionals must identify the contact points to obtain the best from their patient journey mapping efforts. There will be certain factors that might influence the patient’s decisions. 

Your CRM could be a big help in providing qualitative and quantitative data for your patient journey maps. 

A touchpoint refers to communications and interactions with the patient, such as booking appointment reminders, speaking to healthcare professionals, receiving direct mail for drug prescriptions, etc. 

You can consider the following points to evaluate the touchpoints in the patient journey maps.

Timeline

We must examine the length of each interaction. Experts prefer monitoring the time between each touchpoint. It helps them understand where patients spend their time in their journey. Patient journey maps are also more accurate when the timeline is considered.

External Influencers

Sometimes, there will be various factors beyond the health system’s control. For example, the patient could move out of the city, natural disasters, etc. You cannot do anything to control these factors in the patient journey. 

Internal Influencers 

Many internal factors can influence the patient’s journey in your healthcare system. For example, a long waiting queue at the doctor’s office or inexperienced professionals with poor communication skills.  

Barriers 

Each patient’s journey can have multiple barriers prohibiting them from moving ahead. Consider the following examples of barriers; 

• Cost 
• Time conflicts 
• Patient literacy 
• The patient’s mental and emotional condition 
• Socioeconomic pressures 
• Taboos and stigma

A complete patient journey needs more than only a marketing team. You must involve every stakeholder to get precise results. Consider inputs from clinical teams, IT, administrative staff, and more. 

Each patient experiences different touchpoints in their journey. Omitting these points can lead to massive blind spots, potentially destroying the value of your patient journey mapping.

Individuals and Patient Personas

Patient journey maps must centre on your patients. However, we can also include other people the patient interacts with, such as family members, third-party caregivers, nurses, call centre professionals, and more. 

A holistic understanding is vital to creating accurate maps. Experts prefer evaluating every touchpoint in a patient’s journey. 

Places 

Patients either visit a physical facility or receive care online. Both experiences can have different outcomes on a patient’s life. Note how they navigate care in these locations. Your team must evaluate the physical and virtual experience. 

Technology

This technology plays a vital role in managing health systems and patient journeys. A patient journey map must note all the technologies and systems in your medical practice. For example, practices often use EHR systems, patient management software, etc. 

Healthcare professionals may need extensive patient knowledge before preparing a journey map. One cannot find gaps and growth opportunities without a complete understanding of patients’ needs. 

You can use the following step-by-step guide to create a practical and helpful map; 

Define the Goals of Your Patient Journey Map

What are you trying to achieve with your patient journey map research? Which type of map will be ideal for the study? 

Determine the objectives you want to achieve through patient journey mapping. Every healthcare system expects to create a positive patient experience. This process requires greater transparency and clarity. 

A confusing navigation system is the last thing customers want in their healthcare journey. Ensure all the stakeholders are on the same page if you want patients to move smoothly between A to B points. 

It is vital to have clear objectives before you start your research on patient journey maps. Refer to the following questions to get a smoother start; 

• What is the goal of creating a map? What do I expect from the process of patient journey mapping? 
• Which metrics will I use to measure the effectiveness of my end goal? 
• Which type of map will work best for my use case?

Conduct User Research to Understand Patient Personas 

You need a proper patient persona to understand a segment of real-world users with similar traits and requirements. It is a fictional character of your ideal patient. Study the characteristics of current customers. 

The type of patients will also determine the ideal map format you will create. A patient persona can have different metrics, such as; 

• Demographic information 
• Lifestyle and habits 
• Goals 
• Common pain points 
• Motivations 
• Literacy

You can go into more depth by considering more factors while preparing the customer persona. It will only give better direction to your patient journey mapping research. Consider these questions while defining your customers; 

• What type of users interact with your healthcare system? 
• Why would patients use the specific healthcare service? 
• How often do they interact with their healthcare providers? Mention the pain points of these interactions. 
• How can you overcome these challenges of their patient journey?

Evaluate Every Patient Touchpoint 

You must know that every patient’s journey has multiple touchpoints. Practices consider the first interaction, appointment services, treatment, and post-visit in a patient journey map. 

The touchpoints provide information about every interaction with your system. Consider a patient’s emotional state at each touchpoint to make better maps. It will give you perfect ideas for potential changes. 

Many leading UK firms will go back to the map in the future to understand different situations. Ask the following questions to get a better perspective on your patients; 

• How do the first touchpoints happen with the healthcare system? 
• How was the first-time user experience? 
• Define the main stages of a customer’s journey. 
• What pre-visit and post-visit services are you providing?

Implement Automated Patient Journey Mapping Tools 

Any healthcare setting has many tasks and processes. It becomes very challenging to do everything yourself. Only technology can save you from hectic and repetitive tasks. We can use automation tools to automate patient care. 

Implementing these tools in a small healthcare system is easy. However, in complex healthcare systems, things can slip away. 

The goal is to ensure all processes are fully automated and work smoothly. For example; 

• Automation of appointment booking. 
• Direct mail automation.
• Automatic prescription refill reminders.

Ask the following questions before selecting automation tools for your patient journey map; 

• What are the best digital engagement tools available in the market? 
• Which tool is the ideal one for your patient journey map? 
• Are your patients happy with each step? 
• How can they improve their patient experience?

Develop a Strong Communication Plan 

A medical setting can create many misunderstandings and communication gaps among patients. Only clear communication and education can clear these issues. Patients must have a practical and informed experience at every stage. 

Medical companies develop a strong communication strategy for patient journey mapping research. They often run competitor and market analyses to find the best communication tools. 

For example, dentists prefer using direct mail to build better personal relationships. Improve the patient messaging system to establish clear and transparent communication. 

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to develop a robust strategy; 

• What is the effectiveness of your current communication system? 
• Which communication technologies and tools are ideal for adoption? 
• Can your providers adopt the communication technology you plan to use?

Gather Feedback from Participants  

Every cycle of the patient journey map ends with asking for participant feedback. This step requires real users’ input and gives you a fair idea about your solutions and healthcare services. 

Ask patients how they feel about your services. Compare their input with your perceptions and expectations. You can gain this feedback from an email or post-post-visit survey. 

Store this information or implement it in the patient journey map. It will help you make more precise data-driven decisions about mapping in the future.  

Here are some questions to ask for successfully concluding the research: 

• Was it simple to schedule an appointment with the existing system? 
• What was a patient’s overall experience with the system like? 
• What are the missing necessities from the system?

Experts must identify the pain points after completing a patient journey map. There is a three-step process that can highlight the potential internal and excluding factors in the journey; 

Pre-Visit 

• Patients often have anxiety about their mental condition. 
• Put enough information on your website to help patients make their decisions. 
• An SEO-friendly website is vital to ranking on Google search results. 
• Confusing appointment scheduling and missed phone calls can result in delays. 
• Limit direct communication with consultants in pre-visit.

In the Healthcare Setting

• Patients look for quick solutions in the pre-questionnaire stage. 
• Time-consuming and lengthy forms make patients uneasy. 
• Patient satisfaction decreases with long queues and mismanaged services. 
• Providers need to put extra effort into understanding old symptoms and additional information. 
• Patients don’t like to explain their condition repeatedly to the same provider.

Post-Treatment Plan 

• Work on the billing and discharge process to make it less tedious. 
• Gather feedback from patients to evaluate their satisfaction. 
• Follow-up appointments create mistrust between the patient and the doctor.

Many practices have trouble implementing their patient journey maps in the real world. Here’s how to practically use maps to drive action. 

Discover and Rectify Your Problems at the Healthcare Facility

Even the best healthcare systems can have issues. You can refer to the visual layout of the patient journey map to find gaps and potential pain points. It gives a complete understanding of what’s working and what’s not. 

Visualize where and how you can implement the improvements in the patient journey. 

Develop a Seamless Patient Journey Mindset

A patient journey map lets you contribute more to patient-centric thinking. Professionals use maps to challenge their internal ideas of what patients expect or need. Gain a better perspective from all stakeholders to navigate through all touchpoints. 

Understand the Unmet Patient Requirements 

Each patient group can have distinctive requirements. A generic approach to healthcare services cannot fulfil their needs. A patient journey map lets you build better relationships by listening from all the channels. 

It is a necessary aspect to understand where experiences are falling short. Experts use this data to search for opportunities to enable initiatives, streamline processes, and create engaging journeys. 

Refine Your Metrics 

Companies need relevant metrics to evaluate their patient journey maps. They use these metrics to prioritize projects and enhance efforts. You can better understand policies and work efficiently towards optimum patient experience. 

Create a Strategic Plan 

A patient journey map is the perfect way to define patient satisfaction metrics. The datasets from these maps are handy to understand gaps and gather additional insights. 

You need ready-made solutions to boost patient flow management and satisfaction levels. There are multiple methods to enhance the quality of patient care. 

Streamline the Online Appointment Booking Process 

Patients in the UK expect online appointments and a ticketing system from their providers. It helps book smoothly. Your practice must provide cancelled appointment notifications and rescheduling options. 

Satisfy all your patients with a robust appointment booking system. This approach lets you mitigate their existing issues with the system. 

Effective Patient Management 

Long queues are a patient’s worst nightmare. They ruin satisfaction and decrease retention. Healthcare firms can reduce waiting times by implementing a virtual waiting room. 

Patients receive virtual tickets and wait time notifications to get accurate information. Managing time and reducing churn becomes much easier with this approach. 

Focus on Patient Satisfaction 

Patients often need to visit a healthcare facility to collect laboratory reports, bills, prescriptions, and medications. A patient journey map must focus on reducing this tedious process with convenient solutions. 

This step also decreases hospital traffic and saves patient consultation time. Savvy marketers prefer investing in a great advertising tool to mitigate patient worries. 

Many practices often ignore the importance of a solid offline communication strategy. However, statistics suggest offline measures like direct mail can provide higher response rates than online mediums. 

PostGrid print and mail API is an ideal solution for streamlining patient journey maps. It allows professionals to send personalized letters, postcards, cheques, or self-mailers at any scale.

When integrated with existing software, the API works with full automation. Your healthcare practice can define automated workflows for better communication.

Sign up now to streamline your patient journey mapping.