Patient satisfaction surveys – An opinion paper
By Heidi Salib, Senior Product Specialist, Omnitech Innovations Inc.
Patient satisfaction surveys have become standard practice in private and public healthcare settings and are often a mandatory requirement for many quality standards. And yet, most healthcare organizations are not taping into the vast information that survey results can provide. A study found that satisfaction surveys are mainly used by hospital managers who act for the most part on the physical environment. The other dimensions of satisfaction, especially interpersonal skills and organization of care, are underused by care providers. Specific ward feedback could lead to developing improvement actions.1 Using the information provided in the results of a satisfaction survey could lead organizations to better understand their client’s perspective, identify areas of improvement and increase community and staff engagement through communication. I believe satisfaction surveys, when utilized properly are a useful tool for organizational quality improvement initiatives.
Understanding your client
Gain a better understanding of your organization from a patient’s perspective. A remarkable outcome of four studies conducted in tertiary hospitals in different countries revealed that the nurses' courtesy, respect, careful listening and easy access of care was particularly the strongest driver of overall patient satisfaction.2 This realistic tool provides information to organizations on multiple levels. When time is taken to properly review the results, suddenly opportunities for improvement, decision making, cost reduction and health care plan improvement become more easily understood. In many cases, patients have a greater level of satisfaction and involvement with their own care when they feel heard, much more than simply having access to advanced technology and equipment. You can do more harm than good by asking someone about the problem and then having it still exist the next time they come back.3 Understanding the healthcare system from your client’s perspective results in a healthcare system designed to respond to your clients’ needs.
Continuous Quality improvement
The information contained in patient satisfaction surveys is instrumental in the concept of continuous quality improvement. All information gathered in the survey is useful, both positive and negative and should be considered when planning improvement initiatives. Although feedback from patient satisfaction surveys is an established yardstick for healthcare quality improvement plans, they are still not being systematically and extensively utilized for developing improvement initiatives.4 Survey information could surprise you but it will always inform you. For example, an article comparing 4 studies of survey results found a noticeable thread between the studies which was interpersonal skills in terms of courtesy, respect by healthcare providers in addition to communication skills, explanation and clear information, which are more essential and influential than other technical skills such as clinical competency and hospital equipment.5 Another study on patient satisfaction surveys noted, Even if they still do not use this information systematically to improve care delivery and services, this type of feedback triggers a real interest that can lead to a change in their culture and in their perception of patients.6 Such critical information should be used to determine future quality improvement initiatives and communicated throughout the organization. Most importantly, our experts say, surveys should be part of an ongoing effort to improve patient satisfaction, which means practices must measure the success of improvements.7 The Omni-Assistant software, a compliance and optimization software solution, is the perfect tool for documenting and tracking quality improvement initiatives and for tracking the development of evidence of compliance to quality standards. The patient satisfaction survey is an important tool for organizations to consider in the development of quality improvement initiatives.
Communication with staff and client
Improve staff and community engagement by communicating survey results, the quality improvement initiatives developed and the success of improvements once implemented. Using simple communication techniques, such as providing information pamphlets in waiting rooms to communicate recent changes to systems or processes encourages greater community engagement. Continuous quality improvement initiatives should be communicated to the patients. Survey results and planned improvements must equally be shared within the organization. One article reads, this study suggests that a participative department organization (discussion of results within the department) was significantly related to better dissemination and the use of satisfaction surveys. This result is coherent with the continuous improvement quality theory and with studies that have shown that quality improvement is more often associated with a participative organization than bureaucratic and hierarchical culture.8 Quality improvement initiatives usually fall into short, medium and long-term projects. When worked on simultaneously, patients and staff see immediate improvements while more complex initiatives are being addressed. Communication of survey results and quality initiatives improves staff and community engagement which ultimately improves patient satisfaction.
Conclusion
Patients are more apt to be involved in their on-going care when they feel heard. When used and interpreted appropriately, patient satisfaction surveys, are a useful tool for organizations to better understand their clients’ perspective, identify areas of improvement and increase community and staff engagement through communication. Patient satisfaction surveys are a useful tool for organizational quality improvements. The Omni-Assistant software is the perfect accompaniment that allows organizations to easily track progress of quality improvement initiatives and build evidence of compliance to quality standards. In conclusion, utilize patient satisfaction results to the best of your abilities, involve multiple levels of your organization in quality improvement and communicate regularly with patients and staff.
Author: Heidi Salib, Senior Product Specialist, Omnitech Innovations Inc.
References:
1, 6, 8: Laurent Boyer, Patrice Francois, Elisabeth Doutre, Georges Weil, Jose Labarere, Perception and use of the results of patient satisfaction surveys by care providers in a French teaching hospital, International Journal for Quality in Health Care, Volume 18, Issue 5, October 2006, Pages 359–364, https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzl029
2, 4, 5: “Patient Satisfaction Survey as a Tool Towards Quality Improvement”, Oman Medical Journal, 2014 Jan; 29(1): 3-7 Rashid Al-Abri and Amina Al-Balushi. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3910415/
3, 7: “How You Can Use Patient Satisfaction Surveys to Improve Performance”, Software Advice, Gaby Loria. https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/use-patient-satisfaction-surveys-to-improve-performance/