Press Ganey

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in cardiothoracic surgery.

When given the opportunity to see your facilities Press Ganey scores, do you look at them or totally ignore them? I myself have decided I will know longer look at them. I have better things to do at work than worry about our Press Ganey scores. Also, does anyone know what percentage of patients actually fill these out? Do they get sent out to all patients that are discharged, or just a certain number of patients? I remember my supervisor saying once that one of our monthly Press Ganey scores was based on only 8-10 responses. How can you even base anything off of only 8-10 responses??? We are a surgical 32 bed unit so we have plenty of admits and discharges, way more than 8-10 patients in a month.

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Specializes in icu/er ccrn.

heck i think they should post them in the local newspaper, then the actual public will see the type of idiots that come into a hospital on a daily basis..complaing about no cable in waiting rooms, why nobody offered to cahnge my babys diaper in the cafeteria, why cant the hospital get valet service, why didnt they let me take the towels home out of my room when i got d/c'd....give me a freakin break. sometimes i think some terroist dropped some "dumbass pills" in the county water supply.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

if they post them in the newspaper, i want them to include the email we all got from the "suits" telling us that we should be offering to change the baby's diaper in the cafeteria, ordering lunch trays for all 18 "close family members" clogging up my patient's icu room, and pooper scooper service for the "service dog" that some poor nurse was complaining she had to toilet every day. that ought to be good for a laugh!

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Specializes in ER/Trauma.

tomato.gif Please DON'T give the 'suits' any more ideas!!! We're swamped as it is!! thud.gif

I know we're 'jesting' (being sarcastic) in this thread.

But seriously, printing that stuff in the paper will only 'worsen' the situation, IMHO. Joe Q Public has no idea about what nursing care is all about - they mostly think all we do is "pass pills, take blood pressures and wipe butts".

News paper reports regarding 'sub par care' [because we all know how truthful media is when it comes to sensationalist headlines!] because "TV channels were not changed fast enough" or "the wrong juice was delivered" (never mind that it was 0300 in the am)... will do nothing to change public perception that hospital = hotel.

I'm NOT:

* A whipping post for your frustrations

* Your personal maid and/or slave

* Required to hear you hurl abuse after abuse upon me, my colleagues or my assistants.

* A 'customer service representative'.

I'm a NURSE.

* I'm here to make sure that your health and bodily functions improve admit Vs discharge.

* I'm here to make sure that you don't get any complications from your injury.

* I'm here to help you improve your physical well-being ... no matter how much you cuss at me for making you work your joints and bones.

* I'm here to do a billion and other things that will ensure your speedy recovery from whatever illness or affliction ails you.

* I'm here for your spiritual and physical needs - be it taking care of your pain (mental, physical, emotional, spiritual) or helping you toilet/bath yourself.

* My goal is to make you as self-sufficient as you can (i.e.: to fix you up as best as we can to where you were before you encountered us).

This is but just a glimpse.

I think it's wonderful that hospitals want to get 'feedback' from patients. I'm not kidding, I really to think it's a good idea.

HOWEVER,

When such 'responses' lead to ridiculous and unmanageable expectations from an already over-worked staff (to please what exactly?)....

* that's where I disagree.

* That's where I show up and decry it as 'lunacy'.

* That's where I loudly decry the 'destruction' of the nursing profession.

Nurses are professionals.

Not slaves. Not servants. Not mindless drones.

Nurses.

- Roy

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I try to take a different perspective on this. That is, we are providing care to these people because we are, after all, in the healthCARE industry. Just because most of the people to whom we are providing this care are disgruntled, impossible to satisfy and sometimes down right mean, doesn't mean we should treat them like objects. In fact, I think it is the exact opposite. Think about it, why are these people at our hospital??? Because they or their loved ones are sick, injured, and many times on the verge of death. Do you think maybe that has something to do with why they are a little bit irritable and have somewhat higher than normal demands?

Think about a time when you went to a restauarant (another service/hospitality industry) and had an awesome experience vs. a time when you had a horrible experience. I'm sure most of that great experience had to do with not only how correct your waiter got the order (skill), but how well the waiter treated you and your family while you were there (compassion/care). On the flip side, I'm sure that most of the horrible experience had to do with how poorly the waiter treated you while you were there (lack of compassion/care) and maybe none or only a small part of the problem was how they got your order wrong or how much water they spilled on your lap. It's amazing how much better someone can feel (read heal) when they are actually cared for by caregivers and not just serviced by a 'mechanic'.

As a side note, unmanagable requests are usually indicators that something is seriously wrong with a patient or their family member. Maybe instead of crying about how stressful your life is (remember, at least you have a steady income, food to eat and a roof over your head), you should try sitting with them for a second to see what is really going on so that maybe, just maybe, you as a care provider can suck up your pride do something to help.

Finally, while 8-10 surveys is not what I would call valid and reliable data (once you get to 30 then it's hard to deny), you still are looking at the perception of 8-10 people about how well they were treated at your hospital, in your care. If I received a bad review, even if it was just 1 person's opinion, I would still take that into consideration and do whatever I could to improve. No only because that 1 person's needs kept me employed for those few hours, but because I'm a nurse and I care.

Just my 2 cents.

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We have P-G at my place. Our QI person posts all the positive comments that people make, and highlights it when someone is mentioned by name. I like reading the comments, and when people are mentioned by name, it seems to really perk them up. I can fly for a week on one compliment (guess I'm easily appeased.) Yes, there are complainers who do not bend to any amount of kindness, but there are also people who appreciate their care. And, sometimes, people do have legit complaints that I'm actually relieved they brought to light.

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Specializes in icu/er ccrn.

we get all the monthly p-g reports copied and sent out to all the units and posted, we have been doing p-g for about a 6month period so far. from what i have seen is about 60-70% are complaints about bullcrap & the rest may make the legit complaint column...now how much money is the hospital spending for this service that can very easily be done by our own pr dept.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

I don't find tooth them. Our scores are always dreadful because of the patient population I work with....it's very frustrating that management puts so much stock in them and is breaking their backs worrying about them.

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Our hospital lives & breaths PG. We were recently told that our average score was a 61% "Very Good" however we needed to be over 75%. So now we have to attend a mandatory customer service lecuture entitled "How to go from Good to Very Good". The results of our PG score indicates how many people were sent surveys vs. how many replied. Usually 3-6 responses are returned out of the 40-50 they send out. How can that data be reliable??

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Specializes in ICU, ER, EP,.

deep sigh.....we no longer use them:eek:

:w00t:

I'm so sorry my nursing friends, I had to rub it in.

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Specializes in acute rehab, med surg, LTC, peds, home c.
if they post them in the newspaper, i want them to include the email we all got from the "suits" telling us that we should be offering to change the baby's diaper in the cafeteria, ordering lunch trays for all 18 "close family members" clogging up my patient's icu room, and pooper scooper service for the "service dog" that some poor nurse was complaining she had to toilet every day. that ought to be good for a laugh!

are you serious? i cant believe it. change a baby's diaper? clean up dog poop? did they actually tell you you should do that?

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
our hospital lives & breaths pg. we were recently told that our average score was a 61% "very good" however we needed to be over 75%. so now we have to attend a mandatory customer service lecuture entitled "how to go from good to very good". the results of our pg score indicates how many people were sent surveys vs. how many replied. usually 3-6 responses are returned out of the 40-50 they send out. how can that data be reliable??

i honestly don't think that data is reliable. the folks that are going to bother to return the surveys are those who are fired up, one way or another.

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