Gallup: Take Care Clinics top in customer service

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. The results are in, and Take Care Health Systems has good reason to celebrate. Recent Gallup research on customers and customer engagement found that Take Care Clinics rank among the top 10% of all organizations globally in engaging their customers.\

"Take Care Clinics are built entirely around the patient, with the goal of delivering high-quality, affordable and convenient health care on the patient's terms," stated Sandy Ryan, chief nurse practitioner officer for Take Care Health Systems. "Our nurse practitioners and physician assistants are committed to making sure every patient leaves our clinics with not just a good experience, but a great experience. Gallup's results validate the mission we set out to achieve and confirm that we are on point in not only delivering quality care to our patients, but in delighting them at every interaction."

More than 50,000 Take Care Clinic patient respondents have been captured to date via on-site kiosks at more than 350 clinic locations. Gallup validated these results through a nationwide, random outbound phone study. Results of that study indicated that the on-site kiosk data provided an accurate portrait of Take Care Clinics' patient-engagement performance.

The research is based on a measure of customer engagement Gallup has developed that quantifies the strength and nature of a customer's connection to a company. Gallup's metric assesses the emotional bonds of confidence, integrity, pride and passion that reflect a company's customer relationships. Gallup has found that without a strong emotional bond, satisfaction is meaningless. 

The data found:

• Take Care Clinics received the highest satisfaction ratings from more than 9-out-of-every-10 patients, compared with the typical company in Gallup's database that receives the highest satisfaction from just 1-in-every-3 customers;


• More than 9-out-of-every-10 patients strongly felt that the nurse practitioner or physician assistant spent enough time with them, and a similar number strongly felt that the nurse practitioner or physician assistant carefully listened to them and explained things in a way that was easy to understand; and


• Take Care Clinics strongly engaged more than 3-out-of-every-4 patients. The typical company in Gallup's database strongly engages less than 1-in-5 of its customers.

"In today's consumer-driven healthcare environment, engaging patients is far more powerful than simply satisfying a patient. Not only is satisfaction a poor indicator of future behavior, but more importantly, engagement may be predictive of a patient's willingness to make changes necessary to improve [his or her] health," added John Fleming, Gallup principal and chief scientist customer engagement. "Take Care Clinics' commitment to delivering an outstanding and engaging patient experience is clearly evident in their world-class results." 

"Take Care Clinics believes that an engaged patient leads to better adherence," Ryan noted. "If a patient believes in the provider who is giving the advice, [he or she is] more likely to follow the treatment protocol that has been put together. This includes taking medication as prescribed, seeking follow-up care or making a lifestyle change. The patient is also more likely to return to a Take Care Clinic because of the great experience and care received."