Why Patient Waiting Experience Matters So Much

The average healthcare wait time in the US is a whopping 18 minutes and 13 seconds.

While many hospitals, clinics, and practices spend significant money to try to reduce that wait time, waiting can’t alway be avoided. So why does it matter so much when a patient has to wait?

Waiting experience impacts satisfaction, loyalty, and the quality of interaction that a provider has with a patient. Unpleasant waiting experiences contribute to negative impacts on the bottom line, such as losing patients to other providers and reduced satisfaction scores that can impact reimbursement. The waiting experience has been examined for a long time because of this importance.

In 1998, a longitudinal, qualitative study looked at the psychology of the wait time experience in clinics and found that the wait experience matters more than the length of wait to patients. Patients are forgiving of the wait as long as the experience is pleasant. And a pleasant experience is one of the top factors for patient loyalty. When asked about what would cause them not to return to a primary care office, 29% of patients said they were turned off by unpleasant waiting rooms versus 6% who said long wait times.

Since then, many organizations and researchers have studied the wait experience and found that waiting experience impacts patient loyalty and a better waiting experience results in more calm, cooperative patients. The degree to which health consumers are satisfied with the care received is strongly related to the quality of the wait experience. This is true in the hospital setting and in private practices and clinics. Hospitals hire Patient Experience staff, sometimes elevating the role all the way to the C-suite (Chief Patient Experience Officer). Private practices allocate more marketing budget to patient experience and work to appeal to patients and families to ensure return visits.

But outdated modes of engaging children and families are losing their potency in today’s tech-centric world, and meeting digital natives where they are most comfortable is a strategy that doesn’t involve remodeling, construction or other large capital expenses.

Easy-to-deploy technology can change the perception of the wait experience, combat stress and anxiety, and result in satisfied patients who are better prepared for their appointment. Augmented reality allows you to put digital experiences on top of the real world using only a smartphone app. Since most families own and are comfortable using devices, adding augmented reality experiences to the walls of your waiting area is easy and affordable compared to other space transformation projects.

SpellBound Game Pack offers a series of AR games to engage and distract patients, developed specifically for children in healthcare settings. These activities are easy and intuitive for patients and families to use even in high-stress situations like ER waits, and help reduce anxiety and boost care satisfaction.