P U T T I N G PAT I E N T S F I R S T Urgent Care Medicine Table 1. Categories of Patient Expectations 1 Medical Professional Liability Insurance Patient expectations of service quality are categorized across five dimensions: 1 Reliability: Ability to perform promised services dependably and accurately. Tangibles: Appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials. Responsiveness: Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. Assurance: Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence. Empathy: Caring, individualized attention provided to the customer. It’s important to note that only one attribute—reliability—concerns the service outcome. The remainder of the patient’s quality evaluation focuses on the process of service delivery and factors such as the physical environment and the friendliness, competence, and caring attitude of the provider and staff. The Wood Insurance Group, a lead- ing national insurance underwriter, offers significantly discounted, com- petitively priced Medical Profes- sional Liability Insurance for Urgent Care Medicine. We have been serv- ing the Urgent Care community for over 20 years, and our UCM prod- ucts were designed specifically for Urgent Care Clinics. Our Total Quality Approach includes: n Preferred Coverage Features n Per visit rating (type & number) n Prior Acts Coverage n Defense outside the limit n Unlimited Tail available n Exclusive “Best Practice” Discounts n Exceptional Service Standards n Knowledgeable, friendly staff n Easy application process n Risk Mgmt/Educational support n Fast turnaround on policy changes n Rapid response claim service Redefining Quality in Urgent Care There are many ways to define quality in healthcare. Historically, stan- dards have focused on the structure of the medical establishment (e.g., adequacy of facilities and equipment, qualification of providers, and degree of administrative oversight), clinical processes and decision making, and medical outcomes. While all of these criteria are relevant to professional practice, the recipients of care—patients—are usually unqualified to attach meaning to such measures. By contrast, leading service companies have long understood that if consumers don’t like the experience provided, they won’t return and they’ll tell others to do the same. That’s why it’s patients—not academics, accreditation agencies, or statisticians—who ultimately de- fine “quality.” And whether an urgent care center delivers “quality” depends on how closely the actual delivery of the service (i.e., the pa- tient experience) compares with what the patient expected. Clearly, to attain satisfaction, a patient must believe the medical rea- son for the visit was met—but sour employees, bumpy processes, and dowdy facilities can still undermine the best medical outcomes, re- sulting in patient perceptions of a very poor quality experience. (Table 1 illustrates how medical practice is only one of five dimen- sions of service quality.) If an urgent care center wants to convey quality, it must understand patient expectations of quality and manage service delivery to ensure an experience consistent with those expectations. Understanding Patient Expectations 4835 East Cactus Road, Suite 440 Scottsdale, Arizona 85254 (800) 695-0219 • (602) 230-8200 Fax (602) 230-8207 E-mail: davidw@woodinsurancegroup.com Contact: David Wood Ext 270 Given the relationship between patient expectations and experiences in defining quality, urgent care operators should consider first and fore- most the implications of any business decision on patient percep- tions—including people (i.e., hiring and training of providers and 32 JUCM T h e J o u r n a l o f U r g e n t C a r e M e d i c i n e | M a y 2 0 0 9