Summary: Improving Patient Satisfaction

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Improving Patient Satisfaction [Patient Satisfaction]. Patient satisfaction is a patient’s opinion on the quality of care they have received (Wagner & Bear, 2008). Patient satisfaction is subjective and often multifaceted making it very difficult to define (Morris, Jahangir, & Sethi, 2013). A patient’s anticipated expectations of care compared to his or her perceptions of how the services provided met or exceeded their anticipated expectations considerably contributes to satisfaction (Morris et al., 2013; Kupfer & Bond, 2012; Wagner & Bear, 2008). Other factors including psychosocial, pain, depression, level of comfort, emotional support, physical environment, a good relationship with doctors and nurses, education, technical quality, availability…show more content…
Patient satisfaction is considered an important element of the quality of health care, a leading indicator of patient outcomes, and a top priority for hospitals and providers (Morris et al., 2013; Johns Hopkins Medicine, 2013). Hospitals and providers largely focus on improving and maintaining high levels of satisfaction to stay competitive in the healthcare market and for financial incentives generated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (Wagner & Bear, 2008; John Hopkins Medicine, 2013). [The CMS Initiative]. There is an increased need to improve quality in the delivery of healthcare services. In 2012, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) included patient satisfaction in their pay-for-performance reimbursement method; a method also being considered by private insurers (John Hopkins Medicine, 2013). Under the CMS Hospital Inpatient Value-Based Purchasing (HIVBP) program, Medicare began adjusting reimbursement payments based on patient satisfaction…show more content…
There has been a great deal of discussion on all levels of healthcare since the initiation of the HCAPHS survey, its public reporting, and subsequent pay incentive approach regarding the surveys usefulness, effectiveness, and validity. Healthcare is increasingly competitive. Recognizing and understanding consumers’ perceptions of healthcare demonstrates that hospitals and providers are interested in quality, willing to make improvements and find ways to better deliver their services which renders greater overall care and satisfied patients translating into heightened reputations and reimbursements (Wagner & Bear, 2008; White, 1999; Hall, 2010). There is a substantial amount of data criticizing the CMS survey as a limited and superficial approach which does not provide an overall measure of quality (John Hopkins Medicine, 2013; Nelson, 2012; Kupfer & Bond, 2012). Other criticisms include healthcare consumers tend to rely on the friendliness of interactions and not on the technical quality or ability of persons involved in their care; physicians faced with poor satisfaction ratings are obligated to satisfy all demands which becomes an issue of overuse and misuse; incentive money may not be regenerated into additional improvements; and nursing staff bear the majority of the burden when given more duties without any additional resources (Kupfer & Bond, 2012; Nelson,

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