Know Your Patients Pain Points
The HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) survey is the first national, standardized, publicly reported survey of patients’ perspectives of hospital care. Until HCAHPS, there was no national standard for collecting and publicly reporting information about patient experience of care that allowed valid comparisons to be made across hospitals locally, regionally and nationally. Hospitals that provide a higher quality of care will receive reimbursement incentives, and hospitals that provide a lower quality of care will be penalized.
With revenue at stake, hospital leaders making it a high priority to look for strategies to improve the patient experience and up their HCAHPS scores.
Just like consumers, patients now are more connected and have plenty of information and resources to make an informed decision before choosing a service. To compete effectively for patient loyalty, health care providers need to continue to invest in quality of care control systems, monitor performance and meet patients’ expectations.
Patient Engagement and Patient Experience Surveys
What impacts patient satisfaction scores? All aspects of the patient’s visit from wait time in the waiting room to exam room, and actual consultation with health care provider have to be taken into consideration.
For example, The American Journal of Managed Care did a study on the impact of waiting time on patient satisfaction scores. Results revealed the following:
While it is well established that longer wait times are negatively associated with clinical provider scores of patient satisfaction, results indicated that every aspect of patient experience—specifically confidence in the care provider and perceived quality of care—correlated negatively with longer wait times
The American Journal of Managed Care
Employee Engagement Strategies
Nurses spent the most time with patients and therefore carry a heavy impact on patient satisfaction scores. Press Ganey 2013 study found that hospitals scoring in the top 10% of employee engagement scored an average of 61 percentile points higher on the HCAHPS Overall Hospital Rating metric than hospitals in the bottom 10% for employee engagement.
The challenge for all industries, including healthcare is to process the big data received on end users and harness it in a way that allows to make the most impact in an effort to make improvements.
We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.
Harvard sociologist, E. O. Wilson
Investing in the right technology can drive powerful results to improve patient experience and satisfaction. With real-time insights, providers can know how patients feel about their experience before they leave the hospital or doctor’s office.
Having readily available patient feedback benefits patients and healthcare service providers equally. Patients will happily engage in the feedback process that will help them receive the desired quality of care and healthcare service providers acquire valuable information received directly from patients as to how they perceive quality of care received.
Todd Theisen, HappyOrNot’s EVP of Sales and Business Development reports from E-Health 2016 Conference:
Analysing data directly related to each pain point of patient’s journey helps service providers to prioritize, decrease unnecessary cost and measure the effectiveness of implemented solutions.
Tiffany Christensen, North Carolina Hospital Association, Quality Center Patient & Family Engagement Specialist further explains how crucial patient engagement really is:
Patient satisfaction goes much deeper than measuring how happy one is with the care they have received. By working to improve patient satisfaction, we are also working to ensure our patients remain engaged as a member of their healthcare team and feel empowered to share concerns, ask questions and make better choices. Patients who become dissatisfied often shut down, miss key pieces of medical instructions and are less willing to share important information with their care team. At the end of the day, patient satisfaction often leads to authentic teamwork and safer patients.
Tiffany Christensen, North Carolina Hospital Association, Quality Center Patient & Family Engagement Specialist
Are you on track with patient satisfaction?
Learn how health care providers utilize HappyOrNot to engage patients.
About HappyOrNot
HappyOrNot® helps its clients to develop their service experience and sales through continuous monitoring and reporting on customer and employee satisfaction levels. We serve such sectors as retail, traveling and transportation, outsourcing services, healthcare and wellbeing, HoReCa, financial services, automotive, and public and governmental services. HappyOrNot has received several awards and recognition by major medias such as Daily Finance and USA Today, and featured on Fox Business, Bloomberg International, and CNBC. HappyOrNot is currently being used by over 2,500 retail and service chain organizations across 90 countries.
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Sofia Sapojnikova | Sales and Marketing Communications Manager, Americas