Healthcare & Lifesciences · HLS-01

Redesigning the Outpatient Journey to Reduce Waits and Service Friction for Tertiary Hospital

Industry: Multi-Speciality Hospital
Services Provided: Patient Experience Redesign | Outpatient Journey Assessment | Service SOP & Performance Management

Business challenge

A leading tertiary hospital in Kerala sought an independent assessment of its outpatient and patient-facing services. Management wanted to understand where friction occurred across the complete outpatient journey and redesign the service experience

The engagement focused on improving the patient journey from appointment booking and hospital arrival through registration, consultation, diagnostics, pharmacy, billing and post-consultation guidance.

What we did

Assessed the end-to-end outpatient journey across digital, telephone and physical service touchpoints.
Conducted structured mystery shopping and patient-journey observations in selected high-volume departments.
Reviewed appointment scheduling, doctor availability updates, reminder communication, call transfers and enquiry handling.
Evaluated registration, queue management, token visibility, signage, accessibility and assistance for patients requiring additional support.
Examined handovers between consultation, diagnostics, pharmacy, billing and insurance to identify service gaps and avoidable patient movement.
Engaged with clinical, nursing, front-office, call-centre, pharmacy, billing, HR and IT teams to understand operational constraints and improvement priorities.
Redefined service SOPs, communication protocols, escalation mechanisms, performance indicators and management-review practices.

Indian patients and hospital staff moving through registration, waiting and consultation touchpoints in a Kerala outpatient department.

Measurable results

18% reduction in OP waiting time

Within three months of implementation, average registration-to-consultation waiting time in the selected departments reduced by approximately 18%.

15% fewer appointment-related service issues

Improved doctor-schedule updates, appointment confirmation and reminder communication reduced repeat calls, avoidable visits and appointment-related complaints by approximately 15%.

13% improvement in first-contact resolution

Clearer call-handling guidelines, access to accurate information and defined escalation protocols enabled more patient enquiries to be resolved during the first interaction.

14% faster post-consultation movement

Improved patient guidance and stronger handovers between consultation, diagnostics, pharmacy and billing reduced avoidable movement and processing delays by approximately 14%.

75% compliance with service standards

Within three months, approximately 75% compliance was achieved against the redefined standards for patient communication, guidance and interdepartmental handovers.