Patient experience management for eye hospitals
I wouldn’t have chosen to go to Comtrust Eye Hospital, Calicut, for treatment of my minor eye condition but for the fact that my friend who I had a preliminary consultation with on the phone is a doctor employed there and she wanted me to go there for a check-up.
Comtrust is a charitable hospital and anyone who has been to a charitable hospital needs no explanation for attitude. Such places almost always overcrowded, disorderly, messy and unclean and involves a long wait. Besides, the staff members are usually impolite, if not rude.
I was in for a shock the moment I entered the hospital premises. A large car parking lot where cars are parked in an orderly manner welcomes you. (Vehicle parking is a nightmare in most places in Calicut).
As expected, the reception area was crowded with patients and their companions. But there was no over-crowding at the patient registration counters and the registration was a smooth affair. The registration fee was only Rs 50. I think the diabetes test is mandatory here and I had to pay another Rs 30 for it.
Every diagnostic room and every doctor consultation room bears a number. You go to the room assigned for a blood test and show them your patient registration slip. You are asked to wait outside for your turn to give a blood sample.
When your turn comes, they call your name, collect your sample and ask you to go to another room for testing your eye pressure. There you remain seated until your name is called out. From there you are sent to another room for testing your eyesight. Now you are asked to go to the doctor’s consultation room. Every place you are sent to is identified by a room number.
Seamless patient workflow
Here again, you remain seated until your turn comes. As you enter the doctor’s consultation room, you see the doctor seated behind an eye testing equipment. You sit across the doctor and the doctor’s assistant reads out to the doctor from a computer screen the results of all the tests done earlier. The doctor, after examining the eye, dictates her diagnosis to the assistant who, in turn, enters it into a computer. The thing that impressed me most was that there was no physical movement of hard copy reports.
Integrated modules
If you are advised to wear corrective glasses, you go to the optical shop where you are given a print out of your prescription. You may buy your glasses there or outside. Although the hospital was crowded it was it spotlessly clean. The toilets were no exception.
The Rs 50 consultation fee entitles you for a repeat consultation within 15 days. I heard from patients that fees charged for surgery and other medical procedures were quite reasonable.
Ethics, Integrity & empathy
Unlike the corporate hospitals, this hospital does not set targets for doctors for diagnostic procedures, surgeries or sale of medicines. So you can rest assured that you will not be made to undergo unnecessary tests, surgeries or purchase unnecessary medicines.
I left the hospital with very high admiration. This hospital is a role model for other hospitals to emulate.
Comtrust eye hospital is powered by SA-Netra – the leading automation solution for ophthalmology clinics and eye hospitals in India.
Read about the best eye hospital software in Bengaluru