Internal customers, the individuals who work for the organization regardless of location, depend on others to complete their own work. In health care, patients and physicians can be both external and internal customers since the patients move horizontally through departments in the health care system. Physicians supply a service to the organization and to the patients, at times requesting services from the facility. For example, physicians requisition certain medications from the pharmacy for their patients. Internal customers include patients, health care providers, third-party payers, the patient's family, colleagues inside or outside the department or agency, physicians, sales representatives, the technical support staff, and volunteers.
External customers buy products and services from an organization.
In industry, they're described as individuals outside the organization who provide the revenue that funds operations. In health care, however, the internal and external customers aren't clearly defined. For instance, patients, usually defined as primary customers, make up a major group of external customers. 9 Third-party payers, sales representatives, those contracting services such as laundry with the health care organizations, transportation, the local community, and friends and family are considered external health care customers at certain times. One survey found that health care facilities send nearly one-third of their customer surveys to nonpatients.