Press Ganey Patient Satisfaction shadowing in the clinic

[bigred08]

I received a text after work from my ever- so-absent office manager stating "a gentleman from Press Ganey Satisfaction will be in the office tomorrow watching how we and the docs deal with patients so he can offer suggestions on how to increase our patient satisfaction." He then stated he will be shadowing the docs as well.

I've spent the majority of my career at the bedside, and this is my first year in ambulatory care. Is this normal? How is this HIPPA compliant? Please, someone enlighten me. This just adds a nail to the coffin of nursing as we know it. Doctors can't doctor and nurses can't nurse.

[pfchang]

Ugh. I think if the patient agrees to the shadowing, it is acceptable for Hipaa. I hate the way patient satisfaction is going. I saw my doc a couple weeks ago and got a Press Ganey survey via email yesterday. It was annoyingly long, many if the questions did not apply, but I did it bc I like my PCP and her staff a lot. I can see unknowledgable patients answering in negative ways bc they don't understand that labs do not ned to be ordered for every visit, etc.

I worked in a big FP clinic for five years and never saw this. I would be p*^d if I were one of the docs and some guy was wasting my time telling me how to act.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Just like when TJC does their surveys, they get permission from patients first.

[bubbear]

I just received a survey from Press Ganey and I would like to know why they state that thier records show that I saw my "Doctors name" on this "Date" WHY do they know when I saw my doctor and WHY do they have any kind of record on me. I signed no consent form or gave no verbal permission for any thing about my Dr. visits to be shared or released...and the questions on the survey are far to personal and inquire about things that have nothing to do with my Dr visit....really thinking there is something very wrong here.

[OldDude]

I work in a busy pediatric Urgent Care that is 95% Medicaid. We see 50 to 60 patients during the week (Open 5p lock the door at 10p) and 90 to 110 patients on the weekend (Open 1p and lock the door at 10p). We'll see one or two NEW patients each shift; sometimes no NEW patients. Keep in mind you can't have Medicaid coverage without having a PCP. We're constantly dealing with patient satisfaction surveys and management trying to improve them. My opinion is, since we know there isn't near that prevalence of "urgent" medical conditions out there, most of these people have a choice as to visit Urgent Care or wait and scheduled an appointment with their PCP. Therefore if they have an option and choose to return to Urgent Care, that is self evident that they are satisfied and we don't need patient satisfaction surveys.