Increasing Patient Satisfaction Scores in Hospitals

Increasing patient satisfaction scores in hospitals is a top-of-mind priority for hospital administrators and security staff. The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scoring system provides hospitals and regulatory bodies with a standardized way to assess patient satisfaction using quantitative data. Since 2012, HCAHPS patient satisfaction scores have played a crucial role in hospital reimbursement under the  Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program, which rewards hospitals with higher scores by providing greater reimbursements.

Many variables contribute to increasing patient satisfaction scores in hospitals, as patients’ requests span many categories, from shorter wait times to higher degrees of personalized care. In this article, we will focus on one factor that can significantly shape visitor experience but is often overlooked: parking.

Common Hospital Parking Lot Challenges

Many hospitals are known for their overcrowded and difficult-to-navigate parking lots, causing stress and frustration for visitors. Other common hospital parking lot challenges include insufficient accessibility for individuals with disabilities and long wait times, among other issues.

Although many hospitals have a point system in place to penalize staff who park in visitor spots, many security teams are overworked and understaffed, leaving these policies unenforced. These types of oversights ultimately accumulate over time, leaving the patient with a negative first impression before they’ve even entered the facility. With hospitals heavily relying on high patient satisfaction scores for funding, this is a problem that security staff and hospital administrators can’t afford to leave unaddressed.

Increasing Patient Satisfaction Scores in Hospitals with Technology 

Understaffed and overworked security teams tasked with managing congested hospital parking lots could greatly benefit from leveraging an AI-based vehicle and license recognition system (LPR). All hospitals are required to enter information about their staff into the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), including vehicle information, such as vehicle tags, make, model, etc. This means that hospitals currently have access to all their employees’ license plate numbers, but many are not currently leveraging this information. This is a missed opportunity in the context of solving the problem of hospital employees parking in visitor spots, which can be especially challenging given the prevalence of hospital employees ditching their hospital decal permits so they can park wherever is most convenient. 

ALPR technology like PlateRanger offers an effective solution for the recurring problem of hospital staff parking in visitor spots. With PlateRanger, security staff can create hot lists of repeat offenders and receive real-time alerts when these vehicles return. If a flagged license plate is detected, facility security is immediately notified, allowing for a swift response. This enables officers to quickly identify staff member(s) violating parking rules and take appropriate action, such as notifying them to move their vehicle or issuing a citation.

Additionally, PlateRanger offers several other features that can improve visitor experience and generally work toward increasing patient satisfaction scores in hospitals. Let’s review.