Don't be misled by vague survey data
Don't be misled by vague survey data
Get immediate input on registration
When a patient answered "very satisfied" to a survey question about how many times a call was transferred, patient access leaders at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston had no way to know if the patient had called the inpatient admissions unit or the hospital gift shop.
Likewise, if a "very dissatisfied" response was given to a question about overall satisfaction with the registration experience, the patient might have been referring to a registration performed several years ago, or his or her most recent visit to the hospital.
"The institutional survey provides us with a good sense of the level of satisfaction with the overall hospital," says Connie Longuet, CHAM, MBA, MHA, director of patient access services. "But we were limited on acting on certain responses, because the questions are general to the overall experience in all departments."
On the general survey, patients might report dissatisfaction because their bill wasn't correct, which has nothing to do with the registration experience, Longuet explains. "A patient might have been coming to us for years and just got our general hospital survey because they were recently admitted," she says. "It is hard for a patient to reflect back on a registration that occurred five years ago."
An 11-question survey was created to address the specific needs of new patients making a first appointment.
The survey covers only the experience of new patients and omits any other aspects of the patient access role, adds Longuet. "For the other areas, such as financial counseling and billing, we feel that the institutional survey provides adequate feedback," she says.
Registrars hand the survey to new patients when they arrive for their first appointment at the hospital. They ask them to drop it into a locked box in the lobby area before they leave, and the response rate is more than 60%. "By delivering the survey when the patient's experience is fresh, we get immediate feedback on the registration experience they just went through, instead of them reflecting overall on their hospital experience," Longuet says.
A multidisciplinary committee developed the new patient survey with input from clinical and registration areas. "Our clinicians are also very concerned that patients have access to them in a timely manner," explains Longuet.
Managers are given scores for their departments along with verbatim comments. "Patients often name someone who was helpful, so managers are able to recognize staff that are highlighted," she says. "When there is an unsatisfactory result, the managers can address it."
Trends identified quickly
About 700 new patients are surveyed about their registration experience during a two-week time period once each quarter, which means there is feedback from about 2,800 new patients each year.
"Since we do it quarterly, we are able to identify trends pretty quickly, not only across the institution, but also specific departments," says Longuet.
The overall satisfaction score is included on the organization's institutional dashboard, so senior management and all hospital staff can review results. The survey is on a 5-point scale from "very satisfied" to "very dissatisfied," and the institution has set a goal of more than 80% of patients responding as "very satisfied" as opposed to just "satisfied." "Last year, we were successful at meeting that goal, and this year our first quarter result was 83%," says Longuet. Of the last 1,400 patients who completed the survey, none gave a "very dissatisfied" response.
An automated system tallies the surveys to give managers quick results, and staff record all the verbatim responses to produce the quarterly reports, with all comments reviewed for opportunities for improvement. When some patients commented that staff did a very good job of telling them where to park, but they didn't know which building to go to once out of their car, training was done to ensure patients were given specific directions.
"This timely and focused registration survey is an important tool used to monitor patient experiences and make corrective actions, to ensure we meet the needs of our patients," says Longuet.
Sources
For more information on evaluating satisfaction with patient access, contact:
Connie Longuet, CHAM, MBA, MHA, Director, Patient Access Services, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. Phone: (713) 792-7667. E-mail: [email protected].
When a patient answered "very satisfied" to a survey question about how many times a call was transferred, patient access leaders at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston had no way to know if the patient had called the inpatient admissions unit or the hospital gift shop.Subscribe Now for Access
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