patient satisfaction

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · May 6, 2006

TVs in every ER room (after one, ONE pt. complained they had "nothing to entertain" them while they waited an hour to see the doc).

RNLex · May 6, 2006

We have the tv's, we are doing discharge phone calls - thanks

LeahJet, ASN, RN · May 6, 2006

The new thing at our ER is "CIA"

Call the patient by name.

Introduce yourself.

Ask if there is anything else you can do before you leave the room.

Actually, the hospital I work at now is not as bad as my previous employer. They were so "customer service" crazy that I was expecting them to require us to all gather around and clap and sing like TGIFridays.

~Happy Laceration...we're sure glad you've come.....

sorry about that skinned up knee and

your busted bum~

npingeorgia · May 6, 2006

Interesting you pose this question. The hospital that i work for has "statisquest" measure our patient satisfaction. We are forever being harped on by management to improve our scores even when we do get #1 on something. Some of the things that we do is have patient reps check on patient needs,(not medical needs) but things like warm blankets, keeping families informed about wait times, help families with phone calls, etc.

we do have tv's in the rooms too. helps some i think. also a dry erase board with nurse's name, NP/PA in all the patient' s rooms so patients know who to ask for.

In this month's ENA connection there is a section about patient satisfaction that i found interesting. Keep in mind with these surveys and with feedback from your patients that "not everything that is counted, counts and not everything that counts is counted" . We even keep a list of patients for the surveyors NOT to call so that we can continue to do well among the other benchmarked facilities. Talk about skewed results!!!!

I think patient satisfaction has a place but every hospital that i have ever worked in places way too much emphasis on bad scores rather than conditions driving the complaints and bad scores.

burn out · May 6, 2006

Does insurances pay for patient satisfaction?

susi_q · May 6, 2006

This is so funny that you ask. Just today, had a 20ish woman come in with a new "pain". Recognized her, so pulled up some of her last charts to put in with today's chart for the doctor. On each of the last 3 visits, the final dx by the doctor included a concern about drug seeking ... 2 of the 3 she left AMA as soon as getting her drugs. Well, the doc gave me the order to give her a generous dose of dilaudid ... asked if he had read the old records ... "Yup...but I don't want to screw up my patient satisfaction scores, so narcs it is!" (And yes, she slipped out of the room and left as soon as she got dosed up!):angryfire

ERNurse06 · May 7, 2006

We have looked at satisfaction surveys and Pt's like ample parking, they also like the TV's in the rooms, and comfortable chairs to sit on while in the waiting room. If they've been there a while and they have family with them, offer refreshments, coffee, a snack.... the er visit (emergent or not can be very stressfull for family too!) Make sure the patient is warm enough.... people love our warm blankets!! We are even considering having a volunteer near our triage to offer small snacks and refreshments for family members waiting. :specs:

CrohnieToo · May 7, 2006

This is one patient who REALLY appreciates those WARM blankets!!!! They are wonderful!

MrsWampthang, BSN, RN · May 7, 2006

The new thing at our ER is "CIA"
Call the patient by name.
Introduce yourself.
Ask if there is anything else you can do before you leave the room.
Actually, the hospital I work at now is not as bad as my previous employer. They were so "customer service" crazy that I was expecting them to require us to all gather around and clap and sing like TGIFridays.
~Happy Laceration...we're sure glad you've come.....
sorry about that skinned up knee and
your busted bum~

I'm glad you didn't think of that while you were working there, I'm sure powers that be would have made us do that!!! BTW, Mark and I are finally taking the plunge in July!!!! Also, Ana sure is cute!!!!!

Miss you,

Pam

DusktilDawn · May 7, 2006

"not everything that is counted, counts and not everything that counts is counted"

I love this quote. It is so appropriate. There is so much that we as nurses do that patients will never know about. It's unfortunate that our facilities push towards pleasing at all costs instead of informing our patients why we are REALLY there.

The biggest problem with the insane amount of focus on customer satisfaction in health care is that "creature comforts" becomes the primary focus. Things like how well the TV/phone works, the room temperature/condition, meals, promptness, etc become the primary focus. Another problem is that it is made the nurse's entire responsiblity to ensure customer satisfaction, despite the fact that nurses have little to no control over the majority of these complaints. Some of the biggest complaints where I work:

1. Pt told they were discharged in the morning, unable to leave until late afternoon/early evening because physicans have not completed THEIR paperwork. Despite nurses calling repeatedly, this remains a problem.

2. Rooms too small. Yes we do have extremely small patient rooms. Unfortunately we cannot do anything about this unless these rooms are converted into the private rooms they were initially intended to be.

3. Waiting for transportation to arrive with w/c for discharge, sometimes an hour. It's just not always feasible for the unit staff to take them down. The way our transportation service is run seriously needs to be looked at.

4. Room not cleaned, or floors not washed, or bathroom not cleaned during stay. Granted when you have small rooms it doesn’t take much for them to look cluttered, thus appear “dirty,” yes the nurses (of course the nurses) can call to have the floor or bathroom cleaned, but what about the HOUSEKEEPING SUPERVISOR actually supervising their staff instead of the nurses.

5. Inconsiderate roommate, TV too loud, talking all night on cell phone (or cell phone ringing all night), too many visitors that refuse to abide by the 2 visitors at a time rule, etc. HEAVEN FORBID they offer headphones for the TV. The staff are not allowed to take away someone’s personal cell phone and have no control over who calls them (I never will understand why people call patients at 1, 2, or 3am) and we can’t forcibly make them turn the phone off. Yes we have called security repeated over the same patients visitors during their stay when their visitors have repeatedly ignored the nurses who requested they limit their visitors.

6. TV/phone did not work, and patients will mention: “despite telling the nurses, nothing was done for 2 days.” First off, their technical difficulties would have occurred after

4pm on a Friday. The people responsible for maintaining this equipment are not available after 4pm and do not work weekends. The nurses can all weekend till the cows come home and that TV/phone will not be fixed until after 9am Monday.

7. The food, whether it's awful, bland, cold, etc. I know that patient's realize that the nurses do not prepare their food, and there's really very little we can do if one does not like their meals, except forward a complaint to dietary.

These are our biggest complaints that I notice on a regular basis on our Press Ganey scores. Despite the same c/o from numerous patients, nothing changes. In fact we are now being told to “take ownership” when a patient complains. There is little incentive for changes when it is conveniently dumped onto the nurse.

I guess I’d like to know when we, as nurses, get to rate our “customer satisfaction” in regards to the other departments in a facility.

Aneroo, LPN · May 8, 2006

This is so funny that you ask. Just today, had a 20ish woman come in with a new "pain". Recognized her, so pulled up some of her last charts to put in with today's chart for the doctor. On each of the last 3 visits, the final dx by the doctor included a concern about drug seeking ... 2 of the 3 she left AMA as soon as getting her drugs. Well, the doc gave me the order to give her a generous dose of dilaudid ... asked if he had read the old records ... "Yup...but I don't want to screw up my patient satisfaction scores, so narcs it is!" (And yes, she slipped out of the room and left as soon as she got dosed up!):angryfire

So they're sacrificing what's right/wrong (feeding a persons KNOWN addiction and abuse of the system) to keep patient scores high?

Chances are she didn't even give the right address/number to registration for them to follow up with her.