Filed under: Healthcare
In the current competitive healthcare market, providers must strive to meet the highest patient satisfaction standards in order to earn their business. One of the most important factors in the patient’s perception of the quality of care is the healthcare environment. The physical setting – especially the waiting room – is the patient’s first impression of the facility and it sets the tone for their entire visit.
Whether patients are visiting their doctor for a routine check-up or for something more serious, they want to walk into a welcoming, low-stress environment. Doctor’s appointments can be associated with anxiety, so patients should be welcomed into a soothing atmosphere when they enter the waiting room.
Patient experiences in the waiting room are about more than just the physical setting, however. Long wait times can have a significant negative effect on the patient’s overall experience. Even if the patient had a pleasant interaction with his or her doctor, it can be easily overshadowed by a prolonged waiting room experience. In addition, staff members can positively or negatively affect a patient’s visit, with qualities such as responsiveness, courtesy, competence, and communication playing an important role.
With all of these factors that can make or break a patient’s experience, there is a lot for healthcare providers to stay on top of. Survey On The Spot’s real-time survey system allows providers to hear directly from their patients about what they did or did not like about their visit, giving providers the opportunity to quickly make any necessary changes and remain at the top of patient quality standards.
Is it too cold in the waiting room? Is the music too loud or unpleasant? Is the restroom’s cleanliness sub-par? Instant alerts notify managers of these and any other potential issues so the problem can be fixed before it’s too late and the patient leaves having had an unpleasant experience. Patients can also give feedback on more long term issues, such as long wait times or unfriendly staff members, and providers can then use this feedback to improve their services.
With Survey On The Spot, healthcare providers are able to ensure that their waiting rooms are setting just the right tone for their patients’ visits.
Filed under: Healthcare
As we previously reported (link:
http://blog.surveyonthespot.com/2011/12/07/happy-patients-profitable-hospitals/
), maintaining patient satisfaction is now even more of a priority for hospitals as it is closely tied to revenue. A new rule mandated by the Affordable Care Act pits hospitals against each other in a competition for reimbursements, and the scores are based on patient satisfaction rates determined by Medicare-approved surveys.
With money on the line, we suggest that hospitals be proactive in improving patient service by implementing real-time patient satisfaction surveys to complement traditional feedback collection. By using Survey On The Spot’s real-time surveys, hospitals and other healthcare offices can catch potential problems before they grow and reflect poorly on ratings.
Survey on the Spot surveys will be most effective if given to patients during Available Guest Time: the period of time when a transaction is being processed. The best way to ensure survey participation is to increase convenience for the patient as much as possible. Patients typically won’t go out of their way to fill out a survey unless they’ve had a particularly positive or negative experience, so your best bet to obtain the most comprehensive and accurate survey results is to present the survey during a downtime when the patient would otherwise just be waiting. A Survey On The Spot survey on an electronic device can easily be administered at the end of an appointment while a co-payment is being processed or new appointment is being set.
Healthcare offices receive more survey responses from patients when they take advantage of Available Guest Time, which means more comprehensive data with which to improve services. Whether or not there are reimbursements up for grabs, healthcare offices have a lot to gain from these surveys. In this competitive healthcare market, it is extremely important for providers to achieve the highest level of service possible.
Patient surveys can be customized to gain feedback on important concerns such as wait time, ambiance, cleanliness, staff attitude and attentiveness, and more. Surveys will help healthcare offices better understand patient service standards and will illuminate any pressing issues, allowing providers to adjust their services to meet these standards and address problems – ultimately improving performance.
Filed under: Healthcare | Tags: Healthcare surveys, Hospital survey app, hospital surveys, patient satisfaction, Surveys
Last month, we wrote a blog post about an upcoming rule mandated by the Affordable Care Act that will result in hospitals with the highest patient satisfaction ratings receiving the largest reimbursements from Medicare. In essence, the hospitals with the happiest patients will become the most profitable hospitals. Of course, we recommended that hospitals use Survey on the Spot’s real time surveys to gain insight into what their patients are thinking, so they can be proactive in improving patient service. Now, we’re thrilled to report in a recent press release that Survey on the Spot is receiving record-high responses from surveys in the healthcare sector.
One hospital has reported that 15% of patients surveyed give feedback when hospital administrators use Survey on the Spot, versus the less than 1% of patients who give feedback using the traditional survey methods. And in some cases, since hospitals using Survey on the Spot are receiving more data, they can stop making time-consuming follow-up phone calls.
According to Survey on the Spot President Ken Kimmel, “Although we originally created Survey On The Spot with restaurants in mind, we’re finding that healthcare has been an easy, natural fit… Doctors and nurses are valuing the real-time results and we’re embracing the growth in the sector. We’re excited to see what insights hospitals will be able to gain from using the survey and how it will continue to help doctors deliver the best care possible.”
To read more about how hospitals are using Survey on the Spot to improve patient care, check out the latest press release on Survey on the Spot and the healthcare industry.
Filed under: Healthcare, Survey Feedback | Tags: Healthcare surveys, Hospital survey app, mobile survey apps, mobile surveys
Beginning in October 2012, patient satisfaction will reach a new level of importance to hospitals. Medicare, the largest single payer for hospital services, will give patient satisfaction more weight in determining hospital reimbursements based on quality of care.
In accordance with a new rule mandated by the Affordable Care Act, hospitals will soon compete against each other to best satisfy patients, receive the highest scores, and ultimately see higher reimbursements for services. Medicare plans to reserve 1 percent of its regular hospital reimbursements for a bonus fund, to be distributed to hospitals based on performance rankings and yearly score improvement.
Patient satisfaction ratings will be used to determine 30 percent of the total bonus payments.
To determine the ratings, patients will be asked to fill out Medicare-approved surveys once they are discharged. The surveys will ask a variety of questions regarding the patient’s level of satisfaction with their overall experience, including staff communication, the hospital environment, and the level of care. Medicare intends to set the bar very high, giving hospitals credit for only the highest possible responses.
Unhappy patients will now mean less revenue, an unpleasant thought for hospitals already struggling with increased pressure from 
insurers. Hospitals will have to put more thought and greater effort into delivering superior service and ensuring positive patient experiences. Service providers should ask patients directly about their performance in order to fully understand patient expectations and to determine how best to make improvements.
Hospitals can be proactive in improving patient service by implementing their own patient satisfaction surveys. Survey On the Spot’s real-time surveys can be customized to ask specific questions about their patient’s experience, allowing hospitals to spot weak areas that might negatively influence their ratings and to identify and solve potential problems before the patient checks out.
Through survey results, service providers are able to analyze their own performance and make the appropriate changes for their next patient, and any issues can be quickly addressed before subsequent patients are negatively affected. Results are recorded in real time and service providers are immediately notified of any negative feedback, allowing staff to quickly act to solve the problem before the patient leaves. Simply administering the survey on-site demonstrates genuine concern for the patient’s experience.
With Medicare’s new ratings system, it is of the utmost importance for hospitals to take extra steps to understand patient expectations, target weak areas, and identify and respond to immediate issues. What better way to ensure all of the above by asking patients directly? Real-time surveys will set the foundation for patient satisfaction, higher ratings, and better reimbursements.
