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Medical Malpractice Insurance Free Practice Tools |
Our Patient Satisfaction Survey System measures what patients care about.
Over a seven-year year period, the Picker Institute, working with the
American Hospital Association, interviewed 350,000 patients. From this data,
the researchers defined eight "Dimensions of Care" - dimensions that when
added together constitute a picture of a "good" medical experience:
- Respect for the patients' values, preferences and expressed needs
- Access to care
- Emotional support
- Information and education
- Coordination of care
- Physical comfort
- Involvement of family and friends
- Continuity and transition
Our Patient Satisfaction Survey measures your success in satisfying these eight dimensions of care.
How well do you meet your patients' expectations? Our PSSS will tell you. The survey is easy to fill out and easy to understand.
- You can e-mail the survey to a patient who fills it out and sends it back with a simple click on the "submit" button.
- Results are available instantly.
- The survey is available in 10 languages; it requires no more than a fourth grade reading level.
- The survey's validity was confirmed by the Management Psychology Group.
Based on the responses you receive, you'll know whether your patients are satisfied and you'll be able to identify areas where you could improve your interpersonal skills.
Designed For Patients With Low Health Literacy
One of every five Americans cannot read well enough to fill out even the most basic form at the physician's office. This means 20% of patients receiving any survey can't complete it, even if they wanted to. We feel strongly about minimizing this problem, so our survey was designed for low literacy reading ease. It reads at the 4th grade level, minimizing literacy as a barrier to responding.
Readability statistics on the survey are:
Flesch Reading Ease: 76.3%
Flesch-Kincade Grade Level: 4.3Survey Brevity Avoids Respondent Fatigue
A significant problem with many patient surveys is that they are long, so long that patients either quit halfway through or never start taking it. Often, each question will have a fill-in-the-blank and "explain your answer" to boot. The survey is only 25 questions long, and can be completed by most people in less than 5 minutes. There are two optional, generic fill-in-the-blank questions on the survey.Survey Validity
Our Patient Satisfaction Survey System was evaluated by Management Psychology Group (MPG) of Atlanta, GA to assess the validity of the survey. MPG found the survey sound in design given our goals of:
- Measuring the eight Picker Dimensions
- Clarifying items while not raising reading complexity
- Measuring the eight Picker Dimensions while keeping the survey brief
- Giving support to the Picker Dimensions felt to have more importance and greater item numbers
MPG found the Satisfaction Survey System valid for item content, with evidence of construct validity. Further research will provide patient norms and additional information regarding the survey's validity.
Implement Proactive, Real-Time Risk Management
It is no longer a debate that low patient satisfaction is a harbinger for malpractice claims. Gerald Hickson, MD, a researcher at Vanderbilt, has found that unsolicited patient complaints are statistically-significantly associated with malpractice claims.
We ask the question: Why would an organization or individual wait for unsolicited complaints? Why wouldn't an organization or individual measure patient satisfaction all the time, in order to understand where there is room for improvement, related to the patient's needs?The PSSS provides real-time feedback on all patients. Our proprietary system actually notifies the physician, the system administrator, or both, when a patient responds to any question on the survey with a "Somewhat dissatisfied," "Somewhat disagree" or worse.
Defend Against Unfair "Pay for Performance" Practices by Healthcare Insurers
Increasingly, healthcare insurance companies are sending your patients surveys about the care they received from you or your organization without your knowledge. They intend to use data collected about your practice or organization to justify lowering your reimbursement for patients insured by them!
Unfortunately, surveys can be designed to be a self-fulfilling prophesy. In other words, the questions can be written and responses limited in a way as to increase the likelihood a patient will respond in a predictable way.
Do you trust healthcare insurance companies to construct a fair and unbiased survey, when their goal is to continue ratcheting-down your reimbursement?Our Patient Satisfaction Survey System allows you to collect data on your own practice, providing you with ammunition to refute any insurer's claim that your patients have low satisfaction.
This will quickly reduce an insurer's enthusiasm for lowering your payments.
Your own database of patient satisfaction is powerful, especially when shared with the state insurance commissioner!
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