Value of Measuring Satisfaction

Overall, the integration of patient perspectives into healthcare has moved the focus from an episodic healthcare model to a care continuum. This has benefitted such changes as electronic records access. How well health care providers integrate patient empowerment and experience into health management and accountable care may determine their effectiveness in providing effective and efficient care. Early on in the implementation of the ACA in 2011, patient experience and quality of care were among the concerns of nurse leaders reported by HealthLeaders Media. They noted that every person’s job in a health care environment contributes to the same goals and that a “commitment to patient experience ties into the organization’s overarching goals for safe, quality patient care for all.”

Focus has moved from episodic care to care continuum   Providers must integrate patient experience into health management   All healthcare workers must work toward the same goals for the patient

History of Patient Satisfaction Concerns

Research on patient satisfaction dimensions were conducted in early to mid-1970s

Patient satisfaction was conceptualized by the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine under funding by the National Center For Health Services Research and Development yielding in the early 1970s. The result was the Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (PSQ). A subsequent report work in 1984 identified key results from technical reports issued in the mid-1970s to translate the work for practical use. The contention was that reliable and valid measures of patient satisfaction could be important to planning, administration, and evaluation of health services delivery programs.

 

Organizations were formed to evaluate patient satisfaction in 1985

Around 1985 two Notre Dame professors created Press Ganey started work that tracked patient satisfaction for comparison of hospitals, which was considered a valuable marketing opportunity. This was expanded to other settings and the complexity of data, analysis, and reporting increased. Press Ganey and other survey companies used data to provide guidance on improvement of patient satisfaction scores.

 

Financial incentives received for participation by hospitals in 2007 and strengthened by the Affordable Care Act in 2010

 

Now we can discuss why documentation is especially important in the care and treatment of wounds. First, objective documentation of the wound is required to generate and monitor a wound management plan and, as treatment progresses, to determine if their treatment is clinically-, and cost-effective. Documentation is used to create a baseline and evaluate any progress in wound healing (or the non-progression of wound healing). Any stalls in wound healing, such as infection or the patient’s ability to adhere to recommended wound care, are documented to allow the team to adjust care plans and work toward patient-centered care.

 

Importance of Patient Satisfaction

The HealthLeaders Media Industry Survey of 2013 showed that, “Patient experience and satisfaction was included among the top three priorities by 54% of respondents, putting it at the top of the list for the second consecutive year. With the introduction of value-based purchasing and its link to HCAHPS, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has turned up the heat in order to transform patient satisfaction from a marketing opportunity to a meaningful measure with clear fiscal implications.”

Patient Satisfaction and Experience a top priority for healthcare industry Patient Satisfaction now tied to reimbursement by Medicare