Wendy M. Roach, RDMS, CHAM, director of patient access at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, IL, holds staff members accountable for providing excellent customer service by posting individual registrars’ patient satisfaction ratings.
“This is done with full transparency,” says Roach. “We post the associate’s name and their score next to their name.”
In addition to annual surveys from Boston-based Press Ganey, patient access leaders conduct a “voice-of-the-customer” survey twice a year.
“We hand out comment cards to patients that reflect the same types of questions from the survey that they might receive in the mail,” says Roach. [The comment card used by the department is included with the online issue. For assistance accessing your online subscription, contact customer service at [email protected] or (800) 688-2421.]
Patients place the completed cards in a box in the waiting area. “This generates additional information to use with process improvement,” says Roach. Once the comments and scores have been compiled, managers review the results with individual staff members.
Patient access employees sometimes claim a particular patient scored them unfairly because they were having a bad day. “It becomes more difficult to debate that if multiple patients have scored the associate poorly,” says Roach.
Patient managers are able to back up their concerns with data. “It gives us a clearer picture of the patient’s perception of the associate’s customer service skills,” says Roach.
Jon Neikirk, executive director of revenue cycle at Froedtert Health in Milwaukee, WI, tracks satisfaction with the following survey questions:
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“The registration process was completed in a timely manner.”
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“The admission process was efficient and easy.”
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“The person who handled my registration was polite and professional.”
Because these questions are about the check-in process, however, they don’t address pre-registration. “One of the challenges of rating our registration staff is so much of the work is done ahead of time,” says Neikirk. “It’s much harder to rate those interactions using the survey.”
In preregistration and scheduling areas, leaders keep an eye on metrics that affect patient satisfaction, such as the abandoned call rate. “It’s not a direct measure of patient satisfaction, but we know it leads to satisfied patients if you promptly answer the phone,” Neikirk says.
