"I was shocked to find out how many of my patients hate country and western music," laughs a Calgary solo FP. This bit of trivia came to his attention after he had his patients fill out a "satisfaction survey" in the waiting room. Among more serious comments, a couple dozen respondents strongly suggested he ought to change the radio dial.
The MD got on the path to surveying his patients after an evening out at a local watering hole with a group of fellow docs. The physicians spent half the night griping about the ratings they were getting on the popular RateMDs site. Chagrined, a few admitted they'd never given much thought to making visits a pleasant experience for patients. "Why do they care so much about stuff like how 'nice' we are?" wondered our solo FP.
The next day, he recounted the conversation to his daughter, an MBA student. "Dad," she said, "of course it matters!" She pointed out that savvy business owners strive to find out exactly what their clients want — and then deliver. She reminded him about his complaints about patient compliance and no-shows, and guessed that satisfied patients would feel bad about skipping appointments, and might even follow his advice a bit more. (A quick Medline search told him her assumption is backed up by several studies.) She helped him devise a quick survey patients could complete while waiting to see him (see "Popping the Questionnaire, right, for sample questions).
Apart from concerns about his musical taste, some more serious complaints were aired. One patient complained that the practice nurse often left the exam room door open while giving her her allergy shots, in plain view of the waiting room. "I could have been getting methadone shots!" wrote the clearly miffed patient.
Happily, the lion's share of feedback the physician received was positive. "Some of them said things like 'Just asking us what we think tells me you care,'" he says.
LEARNING FROM OTHERS
A study in the 6 May 2006 edition of the Annals of
Internal Medicine found that doctors who were deemed
good communicators were more likely to get good overall
marks from patients, the technical quality of care received
didn't hold anywhere near as much sway. A survey is
a good place to start communicating.
It is true that doctors can get by just fine running their practices without patient input, but failing to take your clientele's concerns into account represents a wasted opportunity. Doctors and patients share many mutual concerns and what's good for your patients is, more often than not, good for your practice.
- NEW VIEW PRINT JOURNAL
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October 2009
Big returns: are waiting room or mailed surveys best?
A mail survey is more effective because it's truly anonymous and not filled out in the hustle and bustle of a busy office. However, they don't come cheap. Studies in business journals show a typical response rate is one for every five mailed. If you're shooting for a statistically useful 200 or more responses you'd have to pay over $500 in postage alone. It's cheaper and easier just to leave a comments box with a stack of surveys in your waiting room and encourage patients to fill one out. Just be prepared to sacrifice a bit of accuracy for convenience and cost-savings.
Popping the questionnaire
When you design your patient survey you should pick one approach and stick with it. Your best bet is the classic five-point Likert scale (eg "Strongly disagree"; "Disagree"; "Neither agree nor disagree"; "Agree strongly"; or "Agree"). That makes your data easy to tabulate and gives you a far clearer picture of what people think than a simple yes-or-no question. However it's essential that you leave space for written comments — that's where our Calgary doc learned the most.
The questions themselves should be simple and focus on the three things that truly matter: quality of care, access and patient dignity.
QUALITY Quality of care is the trickiest of the three because patients so often don't know whether or not a condition is difficult to treat. Nevertheless asking a broad question like "How satisfied are you with the performance of Dr —?" can be very helpful.
ACCESS Access is a real hot-button issue and one that's sure to garner some passionate comments. Here you can fly trial balloons for concepts like same-day booking — "Would you prefer if our clinic offered appointments the same day you called? (Please note, you might have to be more flexible about what time of the day you come in)."
DIGNITY Questions related to patient dignity can be very telling as well. Ask them things like "Have you been treated with courtesy and respect by the receptionist(s)?" and "Do you feel your doctor is a good listener?"
