Provider Follow-Up Calls: A Brief Intervention to Improve Patient Satisfaction Scores

Background: Patient-centered care is the future of hospital services. Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) is the first of its kind, national, publicly available standardized survey. Although the overall score has been improving over the years, the aspect of physician-patient communication still lags far behind. We conducted a pilot study to evaluate a new method to improve communication. We assessed the changes in perception of patients if their provider initiated the post-discharge follow-up. Methods: The physician-patient communication was evaluated for two providers at a community hospital in an urban setting. Data was collected over a period of three months for the providers. The physician-patient communication scores for the two providers were collected and compared to each other as well as to scores per National Research Corporation (NRC). Results: A total of 21 patients were included in the study. The scores for the physicians’ communication improved from the 50 percentile to the 75 percentile when compared to the NRC average. Discussion: Improved communication outcomes require increased physician effort along with the efforts of the other staff and hospital resources. Patients’ perception of physician communication can be enhanced by a post-discharge phone call from the provider.