Last Updated Jul 2013
Patient satisfaction is now in the spotlight for the health care industry, especially as we come under more scrutiny from patients and insurers. What this means is that we need to understand, from a tangible viewpoint, what makes a patient “satisfied”.
For the last 10 years, fueled by academia and pressures from payers, the emphasis in our field has been on evidence based practice, and producing good clinical results with measurable outcomes. This frame of reference represents the perspective of the therapist more so than the patient. Now, with patient satisfaction coming to the forefront, we need to realize that we can't manage the patient’s perceptions in the same way we manage outcomes.
We are in practice to serve, and patients will judge us on more than our clinical skills and the clinical outcomes we achieve. It is easy enough to assume a patient who does well on program, attains their goals and full function within a reasonable amount of time will be “satisfied”. But what about the patient who does not do well on program? Should we assume that “bad” outcomes mean a dissatisfied patient? Our challenge is to make sure that and every patient, regardless of outcomes, can sing our praises, and this is where the type of service experience they have comes into play. Patients will judge us on the experience they have in our offices, which in turn will determine their loyalty and whether they will recommend us. The flip side of clinical and evidence based practice is offering a service experience to match.
In the words of Albert Einstein, “Not all that can be counted counts, and not all that counts can be counted.” The patient experience will continue to become more and more important in health care. It is already being taken into consideration in Medicare reimbursement to hospitals. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services developed the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey and began this past fall linking reimbursements and bonuses to scores on the survey.
The best way to learn how to make sure your patients are satisfied is by asking them! We need to find out what is important to our patients. Typically, this is done by using a survey of some sort. If you use a survey, make sure you include the two part how and why factor. You need to ask how your patients felt about their time spent as a patient in your practice, and equally important, you need to know why they felt this way. Check out www.surveymonkey.com to make it a fun and interactive experience for everyone.
After 27 years in the health care industry, here is my short list of what is important to patients, in addition to being treated by therapists with sound and current clinical skills:
- Being respected. Both in terms of time, and as a person, not a case or diagnosis. Simply put, courtesy may be way more important than efficiency in your office.
- Being communicated with in a consumer friendly but not patronizing manner. Hint: Pictures may be worth a thousand words. Being listened to may be most important of all.
- A sense of cleanliness. From the elevator or parking lot on.
- Getting value. While price is what something will cost a
atient, their real concern is value – that is, what they will get.
The debate among health care providers as to how much patient satisfaction should “count” is on. For a different viewpoint, check out the March 14, 2012 Op-Ed piece in NYTimes, entitled “Hospitals Aren’t Hotels”. Let’s make sure we become part of this conversation.
About the Author: Iris Kimberg, MS PT, OTR, has worked in the non-clinical aspect of therapy for the past 30 years. She is the founder of New York Therapy Guide, a site dedicated to the growth, viability and success of therapists in the private sector. Iris now enjoys sharing her expertise and building business intelligence through workshops, webinars and private consultations. Her next webinar is set for April 17/24th on Legal Issues Facing Therapists Today. She can be reached at .
Click here to read more about Iris Kimberg.
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