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Activation Pathway: Patient Satisfaction

Satisfaction with access, communication and follow-through. Also searched as: patient satisfaction, patient satisfaction scores.

How Improving Patient Satisfaction and CAHPS Scores Can Help for Healthcare Business

Written on . Posted in Blog.

The adage “Happy customers are good for business” is practically universal whether in healthcare or any other industry. That is because happy customers typically:

• Become returning customers

• Influence others to become new customers

• Reinforce employees to continue providing excellent service

In healthcare (where “customers” and “patients” are synonymous), there are many ways to measure and improve patient satisfaction as there are reasons for measuring and improving them. There are two patient satisfaction measurements from HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers & Systems) that are noteworthy for their impacts on CMS (Centers Medicare & Medicaid) reimbursements and patient volumes:

• CAHPS surveys

• HCAHPS star ratings

How Do CAHPS Surveys Affect CMS Reimbursements?

CAHPS survey scores are an important part of how acute-care hospitals receive VBP (value-based purchasing) reimbursements from CMS. Here’s a simplified overview of how they are connected:

• VBP hospitals receive a portion of CMS reimbursements based on their TPS (Total Performance Scores).

• A chunk of TPS is determined by the PEC/CC (Patient and Caregiver Centered Experience of Care/Care Coordination domain).

• PEC/CC is determined by CAHPS surveys.

Put most simply: If your VPB patients experiences are good, you can get higher CMS reimbursements.

How Do HCAHPS Star Ratings Affect CMS Patient Volumes?

Although CAHPS survey results are published each year, it is done for accountability and not for the public to use as a way to do comparison shopping for hospitals—which is where HCAHPS star ratings enter the picture. HCAHPS has explained its star ratings are intended to:

• Enable consumers to more quickly and easily assess the patient experience of care information.

• Provide a quick summary of each HCAHPS measure in a format that is increasingly familiar to consumers.

Putting it most simply once again: If your VBP patients report good experiences, you’ll probably get more VBP patients. And, if you treat those new patients as well as you treated the earlier ones.

Healthcare CRM: An Overlooked Key to Improving CAHPS Survey Scores and HCAHPS Star Ratings

There is much more to measuring patient experience than knowing if a sick or injured patient was made better or well. Instead, patient satisfaction scores relates to a host of other factors that focus more on a patient’s experiences—several of which were touched on in the Patient Engagement HIT article, “How Hospitals Can Raise Patient Satisfaction, CAHPS Scores”: • Clear patient-provider communication • Hospital cleanliness and noise levels • Attentiveness and reducing unnecessary discomfort • Discharge and follow-up process Although Patient Engagement HIT shared some valid solutions for how to improve patient experiences in ways that relate to improving CAHPS scores, it missed a crucial one: There was no mention of healthcare CRM solutions such as patient management platforms and medical call centers. No, healthcare CRM solutions cannot control the comfort of the bed or the “bedside manner” of doctors or nurses—nor was it designed to. But they can have tremendous impacts on many factors that are part of the patient experience, especially with administrative functions like intake, discharge, communications and more. Putting it most simply one final time: If you have the tools to provide superior patient experiences, you can get better CMS reimbursements and more CMS patients!
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Brian Malone Guideway Care Contact Center Director. Guideway Care is a cloud-based technology and services company that improves profitability and patient outcomes for hospitals and practices through end-to-end patient engagement solutions backed by clinical and non-clinical teams. Its HIPAA-compliant, SaaS platform improves care team workflows, automates patient communication and tracks patient progress to optimize the patient journey. Since 2004, leading healthcare providers have trusted Guideway Care to help acquire, manage and engage patients through complex episodes of care.
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Do You Hear What Your Patients are Saying?

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Consumer Reports surveyed 1,000 Americans regarding the typical complaints they have about their doctors and the No. 1 grievance was “unclear explanation of problem.” That is a rather sobering thought. Many would guess the most popular complaints were waiting time or inconvenient office hours. Those complaints were on the list; however, those pale in comparison to the lack of communication between patient and physician. Each person surveyed was offered a list of common complaints and asked to rate the intensity of the complaint on a scale of one to 10. One meant the patient was not bothered at all and 10 meant most intense.iStock_000014616885_Medium Unclear explanation from the physician garnered the top spot with an average score of 8.3. Rounding out the top five most common patient complaints were:
  • Rushed during an office visit (7.8)
  • Side effects from medication not fully explained (7.6)
  • Long wait for the doctor in exam or waiting room (7.6)
  • Inconvenient office hours (6.5) and
  • The doctor takes notes on the device, not looking at the patient (6.2).
While the majority of complaints are inconvenient and non life threatening, but unclear explanations from a physician can be fatal. We know there are more patients in the world than doctors; however, we can’t see a patient as just a number. We can’t do the 10-minute meet and greet, ask a couple of questions, order lab work, prescribe some medication and move on to the next patient. “There should be the thought of accountability and expectations on behalf of the patient,” says Dr. Thompson H. Boyd, a physician liaison at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia. “The patient has to be a contributing member of the care team, not just a bystander.” A key to correcting the most common complaint is better care through communication. A strategy to combat poor communication between patient and physician is implementing a teach-back method. This is a way to confirm the information you have provided the patient has been understood by him/her. A patient’s understanding is confirmed when they are able to explain back the instructions and strategies you offered for their treatment. Remember this is not a test of the patient’s intelligence. It is to confirm you have explained treatment and medication clearly and concisely and thus improving the odds of a positive patient outcome. A few sample questions to ask in implementing the teach-back method after you have shared your thoughts are:
  • “I want to be sure that I explained your medication correctly. Can you tell me how you are going to take this medicine?”
  • “We covered a lot today about your condition, and I want to make sure I explained things clearly. So let’s review what we discussed. What are three strategies that will help you control your condition?”
  • “What are you going to do when you get home?”
The teach-back or “show me” method takes some extra time, but in the long run, it benefits both the patient and your practice. Now you have the No. 1 patient complaint tackled, you can focus on the other common complaints, and partnering with Guideway Care can help correct those grievances. By implementing our boutique medical call center and 24-hour NurseLine, we can help your patients stay engaged. We also can help with wait times by making patient intake more efficient. Visit us at Guideway Care or call 888.986.3638 to schedule a demo. With Guideway Care, together we can transform care in the new year.

Patients are not happy with hospital care, says new poll

Written on . Posted in Blog.

doctor taking notes In a recent study, NPR found that people who have been hospitalized recently considered their care to be very costly and not up to quality standards. “Sick In America,” as NPR is calling it, exposes the numbers behind patients’ recent experiences and their feedback, and the results have some hospitals double-thinking their care. Overwhelmingly, patients found communication and time spent with patients to be the biggest areas hospitals lack in. Among 291 patients who had been seriously ill and hospitalized overnight at least one night in the last year:
  • 34% said nurses were not available when they needed them or did not respond quickly to requests for assistance
  • 30% said that there was poor communication among the doctors, nurses and other health care professionals involved in their care
  • 24% said doctors, nurses and health care professionals did not communicate information about their condition or treatment clearly to them or a family member
Also to be noted, 3 out of 5 patients today feel like their doctor is rushing through their exam. We understands health care providers’ challenges with time and resources, and our services fit in to create relief in your daily schedule. From lead capture and tracking, to U.S.-based call center support, and online marketing services, MDnetSolutions helps reduce patient dissatisfaction by allowing you to spend more time assessing your performance. Leaving the administrative work up to us will help you spend more time and efforts doing what you do best — serving your patients. To find out how we can help your practice by visiting our website or giving us a call at 888-986-3638.