Press Gainey in the ER

I do not like it and I have not met anybody who does! I would get on my soapbox but I am on my way to BUNKO! Down with Press-Gainey!

I don't like it either. It seems only the unhappy ones reply. Our scores for the ER are low again this year! I don't feel it should be used in the ER's.

Doesn't it seem odd that we all get the low scores? We had one month where we were in the 95 percentile, the following 2 months we were in the 20th, this month we are at the 80% and we have done nothing different!!!!! It is all a crock! My guess is that the patients that returned the negative responses were mad that the nurses were "eating and laughing at the nurses station, while I had to wait 6 hours to be seen", were the patients that were in the ER when administration bought lunch to celebrate the 95% placing.

I agree, it is NOT applicable in our setting... only negatives reply and notoriously they are the whiners and frequent fliers anyway!!!

Count me in. I am so tired of pressure being placed on us to get better scores but no one addressing the real problems. It is hard to make someone happy that has waited in a crowded waiting room for 3-4 hours while vomiting up their toenails or having the "worst pain" of their life. I do understand their frustration, in fact I share it. I am transferring to the cath lab after working in the ER 17 years.

I seldom post here but reading all of your thoughts on PG reminded me how much I disliked this measurement tool.

I have used Press Gainey both as staff and manager of a very busy east coast ED.
We saw ~65,000pts/yr from the NY/Jersy/PA tristate area.
I was "educated" on it's use as a tool to improve pt satisfaction.
I personally called and spoke with many NM's around the country about PG and it's use as a "customer satisfaction survey tool" to better understand how and what it could do to help the staff.
Believe me when I say that this survey can be anything you want it to be. It is manipulated to say what you want it to. If you learn how to use it to your advantage it's better than a trained pony. No pony chow to buy and alot less poop to content with.
The survey questions are tailored to your individual unit by your management team to arrive at a desired outcome. Staff are given the standard song and dance about customer satisfaction and unit of excellence and improved pt outcomes but in reality, it is a behavior modification tool used to make staff comply with the outcomes desired by management. As scores go up, the tool is tweaked for even better results.
Courtesy, politeness, smiles, helpfulness, cheerfulness, offering to talk to pt's/families, are what the PG is designed to train you to do. It has no bearing what so ever on clinical care.
If you act like a good waitress at a Friendly's restaurant, then you will get excellent PG scores. It is all about being a meeter and a greeter with a smile on your face and a song in your heart. Now, I know what it's like to be out of stretchers, supplies, staff and up to my eyeballs in pee ( cause i haven't gone in 8 hrs) when the 4th rig backs into the bay with the other 3 staring at you. I don't feel like singing or smiling.

The survey's are randomly sent to pt's after they have been seen, treated and released from your unit. Doesn't matter if they go home, transfer or get admitted. Some of your surveys are filled out by pt's on M/S units and their response to the questions are directly influenced by how nice those angelic nurses are as compared to those crazed, nasty, uncaring busy ER RN's were (who stuck me 3 TIMES with a needle).
Surveys may be sent to all jerks one month then all nice folks the next. Since it is random, there is no way to predict how your monthly scores will change. But you will be "encouraged" to "improve" your scores by virture of random analysis based on the how the average public citizen understands and views nurses. You have to "work" harder each month to make people happy until you reach a threshold and public perception changes in your favor. We all know that the public perception of nursing is not the reality of what we do. So, smile and be the classical public image of a nurse and your scores will go up.

Do any of your ED's share the MD's scores with the RN's ?
You can bet your little white hat that the doc's review yours.

It's not a crock JJFROG, it measures peoples perception of what THEY think their experience was like in the unit.
Unfortunately, those same people don't know a thrombolitic from a pigs behind and as we all know, "Your convenience is my emergency".

Surveys on customer service in an ER is stupid anyways. The ER is there to save lives not hand out donuts and coffee and wait on people like hand slaves. Sounds too close to Wal-mart if you ask me. People are patients in an ER not customers!!!

I am against it. The ones who tend to reply are the ones who come to the ED with non-urgent problems who cannot understand why the 14 year old in cardiac arrest is more emergent than getting them an extra pillow. The survey does not identify the circumstances surrounding the reason why an ankle sprain had to wait 4 hours for an x-ray. Like that there is a shortage of nurses and that there are pts there who are significantly sicker than they are.

I've worked on travel assignment that utilized this. It doesn't reflect the truth overall. I'm a traveling RN/ into photography on a big scale. Contact if you are able. Robert