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Improving patient satisfaction through physician education, feedback, and incentives
Author(s) -
Banka Gaurav,
Edgington Sarah,
Kyulo Namgyal,
Padilla Tony,
Mosley Virgie,
Afsarmanesh Nasim,
Fonarow Gregg C.,
Ong Michael K.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of hospital medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.128
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1553-5606
pISSN - 1553-5592
DOI - 10.1002/jhm.2373
Subject(s) - medicine , patient satisfaction , family medicine , hospital medicine , incentive , reimbursement , patient experience , medline , patient safety , emergency medicine , health care , nursing , political science , law , economics , microeconomics , economic growth
BACKGROUND Patient satisfaction has been associated with improved outcomes and become a focus of reimbursement. OBJECTIVE Evaluate an intervention to improve patient satisfaction. DESIGN Nonrandomized, pre‐post study that took place from 2011 to 2012. SETTING Large tertiary academic medical center. PARTICIPANTS Internal medicine (IM) resident physicians, non‐IM resident physicians, and adult patients of the resident physicians. INTERVENTION IM resident physicians were provided with patient satisfaction education through a conference, real‐time individualized patient satisfaction score feedback, monthly recognition, and incentives for high patient‐satisfaction scores. MAIN MEASURES Patient satisfaction on physician‐related and overall satisfaction questions on the HCAHPS survey. We conducted a difference‐in‐differences regression analysis comparing IM and non‐IM patient responses, adjusting for differences in patient characteristics. KEY RESULTS In our regression analysis, the percentage of patients who responded positively to all 3 physician‐related Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) questions increased by 8.1% in the IM and 1.5% in the control cohorts (absolute difference 6.6%, P = 0.04). The percentage of patients who would definitely recommend this hospital to friends and family increased by 7.1% in the IM and 1.5% in the control cohorts (absolute difference 5.6%, P = 0.02). The national average for the HCAHPS outcomes studied improved by no more than 3.1%. LIMITATIONS This study was nonrandomized and was conducted at a single site. CONCLUSION To our knowledge, this is the first intervention associated with a significant improvement in HCAHPS scores. This may serve as a model to increase patient satisfaction, hospital revenue, and train resident physicians. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2015;10:497–502. © 2015 Society of Hospital Medicine