Practice Strategies

Diagnosing Your Practice with Patient Satisfaction Surveys

Improving the quality of care your practice delivers is about more than just hiring more staff, reducing wait times, or acquiring new equipment. Even practices that go out of their way to provide an excellent standard of care may not be adequately meeting their patients’ needs in all areas. Fortunately, finding out whether your practice is succeeding or failing in the eyes of patients is not hard to do: simply ask them.

While medical groups that operate pay-for-performance programs administer patient satisfaction surveys routinely, many practices have never used a formal means of measuring how happy patients are with the care and service they receive. Instead, practices rely upon patient numbers, complaints, and anecdotal evidence to determine how effectively they are meeting patients’ expectations.

But even if your practice remains busy, there are good reasons to conduct a patient survey. The results could uncover previously unknown problems that can be corrected, identify underperforming staff members, and flag potentially dangerous behaviors or forms of negligence that could lead to malpractice lawsuits. In addition, malpractice insurers and health plans are increasingly requiring practices to submit evidence of patient satisfaction levels before setting rates or agreeing to add a medical group to the network.

The least expensive methods of distributing a patient satisfaction survey also tend to produce the least reliable results. Asking front desk staff to distribute the questionnaire to patients in the waiting room may not be the best approach, as patients who are waiting to see a physician may be anxious, ill, or otherwise distracted, preventing them from providing useful answers. Mailing questionnaires tends to have a low response rate, and the patients who take the time to complete and return the surveys may be unusually upset about a particular issue. While patients are more likely to answer surveys sent by e-mail, online questionnaires may not reach older or less affluent patients.

To achieve the most thorough and reliable results, you may wish to consider hiring a research firm to conduct telephone surveys. Not only do phone surveys result in higher response rates, professional pollsters can ensure that a representative sample of patients have been questioned. When the surveys have been completed, the research firm will provide your practice with a report outlining and analyzing the results. This report, which may include visual aids such as charts and bar graphs, can be useful when presenting the findings to staff members. Firms may also offer to benchmark your practice’s results against those of similar groups.

A consulting firm can help your practice design the survey, or you can use an off-the-shelf product as a starting point. When formulating the questions, consider what types of feedback would be most useful to your practice in improving the quality and delivery of care. Typically, a patient satisfaction survey includes questions about issues such as waiting times, ease of getting an appointment, courtesy of the receptionist, helpfulness of the staff, billing practices, or the time it takes to get back test results. The survey should also include questions about the patient’s interactions with physicians and medical staff. Does the doctor listen well and take the time to answer questions? Does the patient feel hurried through an appointment? Are the doctor’s explanations and instructions clear, or are they confusing? Is the physician responsive when asked to alter a treatment? How does the patient rate his or her overall relationship with the physician? The survey should also include questions for demographic purposes, such as age, gender, income, and health status.

When the results are in, prioritize the issues highlighted in the survey, and work with other physicians and staff members to develop a plan of action to reinforce the policies and procedures that appear to be working well and to address the problems. The issues raised may be logistical and easily resolved, such as the discovery that more personnel are needed to answer phones during peak hours or the finding that appointment times require some tweaking. Occasionally, the problems identified will be more sensitive, such as a physician’s poor interpersonal skills. Addressing a problem of this kind may involve a frank discussion about the need to pay greater attention to patients’ concerns, or even lead to a recommendation for additional coaching or training in communication skills.

Ideally, your practice should conduct patient satisfaction surveys on at least an annual or biennial basis. This will allow you to ask additional questions and get feedback on new staff members or any changes that were implemented since the previous survey was taken. Most importantly, regular surveys will help your practice track patient satisfaction over time, allowing you to pinpoint the areas where the practice is improving and where further work is needed.

For more information about our services to the healthcare industry, contact:
Maxine Lawyer, CPA, Partner - Dallas/Fort Worth at 972.448.6905 or
Philip Fox, CPA, Partner - Houston at 713.297.6914.

The articles in this newsletter are general in nature and are not a substitute for accounting, legal, or other professional services. We assume no liability for the reader's reliance on this information. Before implementing any of the ideas contained in this publication, consult a professional advisor to determine whether they apply to your unique circumstances.
© 2008