Improving the Patient Experience in a Concierge Practice
Creating Individual-level Magic
The concept of “patient-centeredness” has come into vogue in the healthcare industry, and yet as anyone can attest, the experiences of interacting with the system tend to leave a lot to be desired. In a recent episode of the ROAMD podcast, Dr. Scott Pope sits down with Charisse Fazzari, the Director of Practice Experience with Private Medical, to discuss the art and strategy of improving the patient experience as much as possible.
Ms. Fazzari draws on an extensive background in the luxury hotel industry to ensure that improving patient experience is not an afterthought, but a central “true north” guiding all aspects of operations for Private Medical. In working for brands like Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton, and the Mandarin Oriental, Charisse received extensive training that helped her develop a keen sense of how to create and maintain the sense of magic in the mind of each of their paying customers.
People First: Experience Begins Before They’re Patients
Charisse explains how, from initial contact, the onboarding staff makes sure to listen to each patient’s individual needs, what’s important to them. “At hotels, we’d be trained all the time on the subtle nuances of luxury; I can’t imagine really being able to deliver the service we do without having received that training. Now, I’ve brought that over to Private Medical. The patient truly has to feel they are cared for. The onboarding process is critical, so that they feel good when they meet with the doctor, and build a long-term relationship. They have to feel their best interest is really what we’re after.”
Dr. Pope likens the service-intensive approach to that of a duck in the water: On the surface, everything is calm and composed, while underneath, things are moving in an intense frenzy. Charisse agrees: “Every step of the way we’re focused on what matters most to [patients]. Paperwork has to be seamless…Behind the scenes, the business development team communicates with our finance team to make sure that by the time the patient receives the paperwork, the I’s are dotted, T’s are crossed, so they know that we have it together behind the scenes before it’s presented.
“From the doctor, nurse, patient care coordinator; each person has a team working on their behalf. Behind the scenes, the admin work, I call it, the cartwheels and somersaults we do… by the time we show up it’s presented on a silver platter. No matter how difficult it might be to set up an appointment, get visit records, obtain a signature; all of that goes behind the scenes…We don’t share how difficult that task was – their job as patients is to sign and show up.”
Avoid Patient Buyer’s Remorse through the Art of Luxury
In health care, it is still unusual for most people to pay out of pocket for their medical care. In this context, Charisse emphasizes a proactive approach to keeping their members happy: “Our job is to not even let buyer’s remorse surface. They truly have to feel confident that their best outcome is in our best interest. Like any investment, you’re excited about it, you sign on the dotted line. [Patients] come in and they are assessing us, if the experience is truly what we say it’s going to be. If we are sensing that pause, a little bit of doubt, then it’s our job to swoop in and try to minimize any buyer’s remorse.”
As far as the physical elements of building a luxury brand that improves the patient experience, Charisse emphasizes one thing above all else: “The key to luxury is consistency. It’s the look and feel about each office, without being cookie cutter. Each location has to be representative of the city. Subtle elegance without being stuffy. We work with our designer to ensure it reflects who we are as a brand. Everything has a subtle touch of quality… We’re unique: When you walk in you’d never know it’s a doctor’s office because we want people to feel comfortable.”
Charisse is quick to emphasize that the appearance of their office space is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to improving patient experience. Particularly in a pandemic, the emphasis on “how you make people feel” comes first. “When I was in hotels I used to say to my teams, ‘Yes we have a beautiful hotel, but people pay a lot of money to place their head on the pillow and sleep there; they can do that at a lot of places. We are what makes the difference.’ Their experience with us, their connection to the team, really seeing them as individuals, that’s what makes the difference to improving patient experience. That’s what makes them confident they have made the right decision to be there with us.”
Designing Relationship-Driven Medical Practice
While an obvious, well-established focal point in medicine has been the relationship between doctor and the patient, she explains how Private Medical goes well beyond this lynchpin, emphasizing the patient’s relationship with the entire team of doctors, nurses, and patient care coordinators whose job is more focused on improving patient experience. Moreover, the organizational culture places a premium on all of the relationships in place: With business vendors, with a national expert network of specialists, as well as with the assistants in each office “who make the magic happen.” She describes an intricate team, spanning tech, IT, finance, and business development, who enable clinical staff and operations team to provide the best experience for patients.
In these virtual-first times, Charisse also points out the importance of phone etiquette in crafting a luxury experience for their patients. “[It] starts from the basic greeting when answering the phone. . .It’s avoiding slang, saying ‘Please allow me to connect you,’ not ‘Hold on a minute.’ It’s avoiding verbiage like ‘you guys’ – those are the subtle nuances of luxury that make a difference. Think, ‘Elegant without being stuffy.’” That holds true for written communication through e-mail as well; She encourages care teams in their huddles to note down everything that needs to be communicated with the patient prior to hitting send on any email, to avoid incomplete or competing messaging and improve the patient experience as much as possible.
When asked what one piece of advice she would proffer physicians building their own concierge practice, Charisse cuts to the chase: “They are people before they are patients. Always take that into consideration, and see them as individuals. Really, they are putting their life in your hands, and that’s a gift, and [we] should be honored that we are being chosen to do that, and do well by that decision.”
For more insights into building an experience that patients love, check out our other episodes that cover how to improve patient experience and much more. Also be sure to visit ROAMD online to learn about membership-based medical practices.
Charisse Fazzari is Director of Member Experience at Private Medical. She oversees the delivery of an exceptional customer experience to members, from their first contact with the company through ongoing engagement and support.
With a background in luxury hospitality, Charisse brings more than 20 years of experience in customer service and relationship management. She has held roles as Concierge and Chief Concierge with Loews Hotels, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, and Ritz Carlton. In each of these positions, she was responsible for delivering an outstanding level of service to guests and developing strong relationships with them.
Charisse studied French at the Université Paris-Sorbonne and accounting at San Francisco State University. In addition to English, she speaks French and Italian fluently
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