"What Patients are Saying"...Excellent, Good, Average or Poor?

Patient Satisfaction.

This week I wanted to blog about patient satisfaction survey scores and Medicare reimbursment rates.  There has been alot talk around the topic of patient staisfaction scores and how to raise the scores to a level exceptable for Medicare.  Hospitals are taking extraordinary measures and reconstructuring staff in an attempt to increase patient satisfaction scores.  Honestly, I did not know that patient satification scores had any relation to reimbursment rates or the Obama care act.  I felt that it was important to better understand the details of this mandate.

"Effective October 2012, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will withhold 1 percent of regular reimbursements based on performance, an estimated $850 million" (Cheung-Larivee, 2011, N.P.).

"A recently instituted Obamacare pay-for-performance measure will tie hospital payments to consumer satisfaction by measuring responses to a questionnaire that surveys how well hospitals are serving their patients. Part of the reimbursement cuts for hospitals that take on Medicare patients — a rate cut of one percent this fiscal year, increasing to two percent by 2017 — will be redistributed to the high-performing hospitals that meet certain procedural benchmarks and score well on the questionnaire.  High-performing hospitals will be rewarded with a Medicare “bonus” while low-performing hospitals have to live with the reimbursement rate cut. Only hospitals that receive a grade of 9 or 10 (out of a 10-point scale) will count for Medicare credit" (Mukherjee, 2012, N.P.).

  

Some are saying that the patient satisfaction surveys are going to unltimately punish hopsitals that cannot afford certain amenitites and for things that they cannot control.  Data points to an average result of sixty percent on the paitent satifiscation surveys even for top performing hospitals.

A fewexample questions from the survey inclued:

• Did the doctors and nurses communicate well?
• Was pain well controlled?
• Was the room clean and the hospital quiet at night?

One recommendation from our textbook for increasing paitent satisfaction scores is to implement the following modle of delivery of care:

"12 -bed hospitalsmodel of care is designed to improve communication and continuity through the developmmet of 12 to 16 bed units creating a feeling of a small hospital within a large one.  A RN functions as the patient care facilitator for each unit and assumes 24/7 accountability for individualized patient care.  The PCF is the primary point of contact for the interdisciplinary team, as well as the patient and family.  Patient satification is improved, lenght of stay is shortened, and patient safety measures have reduced the number of falls with injury and the number of pressure ulcers" (Huber, 2009, p.455).

What do you think about the patient satisfaction mandate?  Do you have any concerns?

More Resources..
On Tying Medicare Reimbursement to Patient Satisfaction Surveys
4 Strategies to Improve Patient Satisfaction — and Profitability


References:
Mukherjee, S.  (2012).  Hospitals Focus On Patient Satisfaction As Obamacare Measure Takes Effect.  Retreived from http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/10/16/1019151/hospitals-patient-satisfaction-obamacare/?mobile=nc
Cheung-Larivee, K. (2011). Hospitals with best patient satisfaction to draw in reimbursements.  Retreived from Hospitals with best patient satisfaction to draw in reimbursements - FierceHealthcare