Patient Partnership Council
April 15, 2015
Tri-City Healthcare District
Oceanside, California
Council members,
Today, 4/15/15, I
found the conversation concerning patient satisfaction surveys at Tri-City
Healthcare District’s(TCHD) Patient Partnership Council meeting most interesting. Perhaps the most profound
input was presented by Dr. Stuiver “over
the past few weeks there have been very few complaints concerning patient satisfaction”,
a statement of the quality of the professionals and volunteers working hard on
a very critical issue in my humble opinion.
The reported fact
that the response rate is around six(6) percent at TCHD and can influence the
fiscal situation by up to thirty percent in the days of the Affordable Care Act
perhaps is why it will be on the agenda for our next meeting.
Many times at the Board
Meetings at TCHD there is almost a side note interest in improving the patient
experience and most weeks I badger the California Nurses Association about the leadership role they should assume on the
issue, perhaps they had something to do with the improvements Dr. Stuiver
described so I included them on the cc, thank you CNA.
The disturbing part
of the conversation is that the agencies(US) collecting and analyzing the
survey are offering no feedback as to how to increase response rates so I cc to
them as well, the California Department of Public Health is not the
U.S.D.H.H.S. but do have a stake in an obviously failing system.
Just to start the argument,
no matter where the delivery(new Guide book is an option), be honest and ask
for help:
“Your input will
influence our community hospital and the quality of care we provide”
“How can you help”
“Why should you help”
“Your experience will
directly influence”
“Patient satisfaction
is a critical part of our funding cycle”
Psychological Approach
The psychological approach relies on heuristic factors such as reciprocity,
helping, compliance, and selectivity as a way to increase response. Reciprocity
is the behavioral norm that says people should treat others as they have been
treated
Best regards,
Michael Slavinski
Ps Please feel free to challenge my opinion, that is the point, the reason
why patient satisfaction is a “side note” at the honorable TCHD Board meetings
is the multi-million dollar investments in capital equipment and technology to improve “quality” is the current trend, healthcare has finally
made it to the 1980’s.
Six percent, that is disturbing, is the ACA really failing that badly, what could you possibly learn from 6% responding patients?
