A ‘Dirty Bomb Explosion’ Patient Satisfaction

http://www.medpagetoday.com/EmergencyMedicine/EmergencyMedicine/48857

In the early 2000s the federal government discovered a new metric, patient satisfaction, and mandated hospitals to begin measuring and reporting satisfaction survey results. A generous interpretation is that the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) mandate is a misguided attempt to guarantee quality in the healthcare for which they were paying.

According to USA Today, the management consulting firm Hay Group, found two-thirds of physician pay incentives are based on patient satisfaction scores.” It is clear that the American consumer believes MORE care is BETTER care, and American physicians have fed into that consumerism as a matter of self-preservation.

Patients no longer trust physicians because we have stopped acting like physicians and are behaving more like corporate spokespeople, reading pre-written, scripted, focus-group-tested, and consultant approved administrative talking points rather than having open and honest dialogue with them.

Physicians and other healthcare providers need to be able to focus on the needs of their patients rather than the expectations of administrators. That’s the irony of patient satisfaction — it distracts and ultimately removes the physicians’ attention from where it belongs — on the patient..

https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/CMS-Forms/CMS-Forms/downloads/cms10287.pdf

Star (satisfaction)  rating system for Medicare Part C and D  http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Prescription-Drug-Coverage/PrescriptionDrugCovGenIn/Downloads/2014UserCallSlidesPlanPreviews.pdf

Filed under: General Problems