patient satisfaction

An article from Hospitalist Management Advisor argues that by improving the discharge process, hospitals can increase patient satisfaction. Though it's commonly believed that patients don't like short hospital stays because they feel as though they're being hurried out before they're ready, a Press Ganey survey has found that patients with shorter stays are more satisfied with their experience than those with longer hospital visits. The study identifies four areas that contribute …

> New York City officials say that there's a crisis brewing in the city's healthcare system. Article

> With the promotion of nurse executive Nancy Formella, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center has become one of only 2.5 percent of U.S. hospitals with a female CEO. Formella is the acting head while the hospital considers reorganization plans. …

The healthcare industry isn't exactly known for its attention to customer service, but with the advent of consumer-driven healthcare, providers can't afford to run a practice that doesn't impress patients. That's why some physicians have turned to "mystery shoppers"--paid employees who pose as patients and evaluate the quality of the service they received. Mystery shoppers are commonly used in the retail and hotel industries, but using their services in the healthcare industry is a fairly …

Joining the recent roll-out of a number of P4P programs, Pennsylvania-based Unison Health Plan, a Medicare and Medicaid provider, has begun enrolling doctors in Unison Gold Star. The program will measure efficiency of medical practice, patient satisfaction and other commonly used quality measures. This is the state's first P4P program aimed at Medicare and Medicaid providers. Eight hundred practices are eligible …

Blue Cross of California is paying 178 physician groups an extra $65 million this year under a pay-for-performance program that rewards high quality in a number of areas, including patient satisfaction, waiting times for appointments, number of complaints and grievances, and review of medical group or IPA functions. Performance in clinical areas was tracked, too, including managing chronic diseases such as asthma and diabetes and adherence to screening guidelines for breast and cervical …

Telling a patient that she's so obese no man would want her--or suggesting that another should shoot herself--is not diplomatic, to say the least. Some would say that New Hampshire's Dr. Terry Bennett's comments were simply cruel, so much so that he deserves a formal reprimand from his peers (see story below). Apparently, a judge disagrees. Regardless, the 68-year old physician is …

When a hospital's board of directors is involved in quality oversight, the hospital has a better quality of clinical care and stronger financial success, according to a study released by the Governance Institute and Solucient. The study, which examined 4,200 not-for-profit hospitals and health systems, determined that the best hospitals performed a number of quality measures on a regular basis.

Key quality measures included making sure CEOs evaluated whether improvement goals were …

Press Ganey released a patient satisfaction study that finds that the gap between the best performing hospitals and the worst performers in many measures of patient satisfaction is growing. At a time when many consumers are joining the consumer-driven healthcare revolution--or at least thinking more about their healthcare choices--this is, of course, noteworthy.

Here are a few interesting details drawn from the executive summary. Smaller facilities with 50 beds or less tend to have …

Some hospitals have argued for years that patient satisfaction scores can be misleading when it comes to gauging the quality of the healthcare services they receive. After all, patients are only human, aren't they? And can easily be swayed by factors that have little if anything to do with the true quality of care. A new study out in the Annals of Internal Medicine appears to back this view. RAND Researchers and a team from the University of California Los Angeles surveyed 236 elderly …

The Washington Post writes that report cards issued for managed care plans may be misleading consumers. Many report cards appear to pay more attention to easy-to-interpret patient satisfaction scores than to scientific quality indicators. The National Bureau of Economic Research put out its own report card on the report cards, noting that patient satisfaction scores are often unduly influenced by factors such as the friendliness of staff or waiting room décor. …