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What’s an acceptable satisfaction percentage with patient surveys?


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Anyone have any corporate insight as to above?  Some negative comments for myself on a recent survey were I talk with my eyes closed with only some apparently (used to have cardiologist SP who did the same), I don’t let the patient talk enough, and we give the patient the same thing each visit (uh, yep, because we have a limited scope of practice because it is a snot/cough clinic).  Folks don’t like NOT getting tested for flu because they have to see their PCP to get tested (validity of study not withstanding).

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When I worked in the corp. world and this is one of the main reasons I left is this BS, I do not care what my patients think of me. I know I give great care, have a smiling face when walking in, shake hands, make eye contact and ask them "What may I help you with today?" Just cause they think me not giving them antibiotics is wrong or they wanted something stronger for pain or they didn't want to give blood "again" for their A1C of 10.1%, does not mean you need to improved ANYTHING. We do not whine about when the cashier at Wal-Mart is not "extra nice to us" and she did not give me a coupon for the milk. Give me a F***ing break. Why do we stand for this crap. If your car broke down and the tow truck driver didn't smile at you and hug you cause your car broke down would you complain? No! No one would do that, but when someone else "sick" cause my sinuses hurt for 12 hrs and I can't miss work they complain cause you do not have  a magic wand. Screw the corp world and the scores. They mean NOTHING! Only the mad/dis-satisfied patients fill out those surveys. Do not get yourself worked up over something so meaningless, you are doing fine! 

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Not worked up (remember, I’m now a medical mercenary).  I was just curious what the suits considered acceptable?  I typed this with my eyes closed again.  One also needs to consider my population base (govt employees predominantly).  At the risk of sounding sexist, I have a legitimate question.  Are females more likely to complain in medical settings versus men?  My experience says yes (sorry ladies).

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19 minutes ago, GetMeOuttaThisMess said:

Not worked up (remember, I’m now a medical mercenary).  I was just curious what the suits considered acceptable?  I typed this with my eyes closed again.  One also needs to consider my population base (govt employees predominantly).  At the risk of sounding sexist, I have a legitimate question.  Are females more likely to complain in medical settings versus men?  My experience says yes (sorry ladies).

Well I got worked up over your question haha! Sorry I misunderstood, I do not even have a answer to your question as we do not have scores at my RHC so I have been out of the loop x 3 years. I will be interested to hear others. 

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This is one of the unending pains we all have to deal with because bean counters are far far removed from the reality of practicing medicine. I suggested once that if 99.5% of everyone we see is happy we shouldn't waste our time on the other .5% because they are unreasonable people with unreasonable expectations and trying to make them happy is a fools errand. You'd have thought I pooped in the punch bowl.

The best I have been able to do when confronted with these things is say " is the quality of the care I delivered in question? No? Then I'm not interested in their complaint and won't respond to it." My boss just short sheets all these things by writing "discussed with provider. No further action required"  sometimes even before I have seen it.

For admin 100% positive is the only acceptable standard.

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13 minutes ago, sas5814 said:

This is one of the unending pains we all have to deal with because bean counters are far far removed from the reality of practicing medicine. I suggested once that if 99.5% of everyone we see is happy we shouldn't waste our time on the other .5% because they are unreasonable people with unreasonable expectations and trying to make them happy is a fools errand. You'd have thought I pooped in the punch bowl.

The best I have been able to do when confronted with these things is say " is the quality of the care I delivered in question? No? Then I'm not interested in their complaint and won't respond to it." My boss just short sheets all these things by writing "discussed with provider. No further action required"  sometimes even before I have seen it.

For admin 100% positive is the only acceptable standard.

To fix these bean counters, we all need to stand together 100% of us and kick back saying what @sas5814 said, "is the quality of the care I delivered in question?" If that answer is No then screw them and tell them shove it. I would love to speak with those bean counters and tell them how life truly is not behind a desk. Get a life and do something else with their time. If you don't have anything else to do then maybe you should get fired for not being able to justify your position. MBAs are a dime a dozen now, means nothing to me. 

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I like the response of “I come in with the same problem and always get the same medication.”  I agree with you that as long as the SP’s are happy and the quality of care is dead on then one shouldn’t worry.  What this also shows me is that they don’t read the instructions that I give them (only three or four sentences) for sinuses, sore throats, and coughs that are from the respective SPECIALTY GROUPS.  

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28 minutes ago, GetMeOuttaThisMess said:

 What this also shows me is that they don’t read the instructions that I give them

That is my experience as well. Every UC patient I see their instructions say "if you don't improve as expected see your primary care provider. If you worsen in any way go to the ER." At least 3 x daily I get a patient come back into the UC who states they were seen a few days ago in the UC and they aren't better. Then they look at me like I'm stupid when I tell them they have had everything we have to offer in the UC and that is why I gave them specific instructions on follow up.

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36 minutes ago, sas5814 said:

That is my experience as well. Every UC patient I see their instructions say "if you don't improve as expected see your primary care provider. If you worsen in any way go to the ER." At least 3 x daily I get a patient come back into the UC who states they were seen a few days ago in the UC and they aren't better. Then they look at me like I'm stupid when I tell them they have had everything we have to offer in the UC and that is why I gave them specific instructions on follow up.

When they ask why we don’t see follow ups I tell them the same thing.  I have extremely limited resources and I’ve maxed out what I can offer.  Folks, you ought to be happy that I consider contingencies and cover for that.  They don’t like hearing 10-14 days for head sx and  2-4 weeks for most coughs.  Reality can be a bear.

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Happy and Good Medicine are often mutually exclusive goals. Medicine is NOT customer service - it is the ART of medicine and the ability to provide insight and interventions.

When your A1c is 10.9 and BP 165/98 - leaving my office "happy" might not be the case. Hearing what needs to be said and having support and a plan - yep, that is my duty.

You want "Happy" - go get a massage or your toenails painted.

Surveys are not any way to measure medical savvy.

That said, the horrid female doc I worked with briefly (she was fired) - walked into an exam room and told the patient (smoker) that she STUNK and that room would be unusable for hours due to the wretched odor of smoking. THAT was her intro upon walking in.

Does she deserve a bad survey - YES. Did she deserve to be fired - HELL YES - list of reasons unbelievably long and detailed.

The VA has some weird ass survey that goes out TWO MONTHS after the visit to only 10% of patients. You know who answers? -- the ones who are chronically angry. Does that help us? NEVER. We asked to have folks polled on exit or given an iPad in the room - went to committee and has apparently languished and died somewhere between here and Washington DC.

Tell the bean counters to pound sand and ask the medical director to review the chart for appropriate medical intervention. Nothing else is going to measure what we do when we deal with illness, pain, self responsibility and death.

Back to my charts......

 

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