Patient Satisfaction Blog Series for CRC 2012
Pat Sat/HCAHPS/P4P – Huh?
This is the first of a series of five postings that will attempt to make sense of some the above. Patient satisfaction has risen to the top of many a list as the government and other payers are establishing pay for performance (P4P) initiatives. One of the reasons everyone is working on this is there is a clear connection between patient satisfaction and quality. Check out the New England Journal of Medicine for more information on this (2008; 359:1921-1931).
Because patients, payers, and politicians now care about patient satisfaction, the next three posts will provide tips for improving scores on the three physician specific questions on the HCAHPS questionnaire. The last post will tie it all together to show physicians and MSPs how patient satisfaction affects physician performance.
To start, what is HCAHPS? The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems is a 27-question survey developed by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services with the following goals in mind:
- To produce data about patients’ perspectives of care that allow objective and meaningful comparisons of hospitals on topics that are important to consumers
- To create incentives for hospitals to improve quality of care by making public survey results
- To enhance accountability in healthcare by increasing transparency of the quality of hospital care provided in return for public investment (also by making public the survey results)
Although this survey covers a number of areas, my blog posts will cover these three physician-specific questions:
- During this hospital stay, how often did physicians treat you with courtesy and respect?
- During this hospital stay, how often did physicians listen carefully to you?
- During this hospital stay, how often did physicians explain things in a way you could understand?
Until next time, try to get your arms around the fact that improving patient satisfaction will improve quality. For many of us, this fact will be difficult to swallow, but swallowing (internalizing) this will be critical for our success in the future.
Editor’s note: William Mills, MD, MD, MMM, CPE, FACPE, CMSL, FAAFP, is a featured speaker at the 15th annual Credentialing Resource Center Symposium, May 10-11. He will be speaking on using patient satisfaction scores to drive improvement as well as how to privilege low- and no-volume practitioners. For more information, click here.
About the Author: William F. Mills, M.D., MMM, CPE, FAAFP, CMSL, is currently the senior vice president of quality and professional affairs for the Upper Allegheny Health System located in western NY. Mills is a graduate of Hahnemann University School of Medicine and completed his family practice residency at the West Jersey Health System. He is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine, and a fellow in the American Academy of Family Physicians. Mills is currently a clinical assistant professor at the School of Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo. He is also certified in addiction medicine through the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and currently serves as a medical review officer. Prior to transitioning to full-time administrative medicine, Mills spent more than 20 years as a practicing family physician, and more than 10 years as the medical director of a residential drug and alcohol treatment facility. He also holds a Master of Medical Management degree from the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California and is a Certified Physician Executive from the Certifying Commission in Medical Management.
