Patient Satisfaction
HCA 375 Continuous Quality Monitoring and Accreditation
05/20/2013

If you recently saw a doctor at the hospital, you might subsequently receive a survey in the mail asking whether your physician was friendly, spent enough time with you, or showed the appropriate level of concern for your medical issues. Reliability is a must have in the hospital setting in order for patients to trust the person giving care, “reliability is defined as the performance of a dependable and accurate service” (Mowen, Licata, & McPhail, 1993).
Patient satisfaction surveys are being increasingly used in hospitals nationwide. A leading organization measuring patient satisfaction, counts more than 10,000 medical institutions in the U.S., and over 40% of hospitals, among its clients. Happy patients are obviously important, but doctors often have little idea of how patients perceive them. Gauging patient sentiment with satisfaction scores is a useful way to point out deficiencies and improve the patient experience.
In fact, doctors who consciously try to improve their patient interactions are sued less often. Now it is recommended that doctors spend more time with their patients so the patient has the opportunity to ask any questions necessary without feeling like they are being limited or rushed. At the VA hospital the doctors are on the job 24 hours a day and the patient charts are updated every shift so that if there is a problem with a patient the doctor will have the most accurate information to handle the problem with the patient. Having these little things increase the patient satisfaction and the patient will return for care and refer this hospital for other fellow veterans.
Patient satisfaction also translates into higher hospital revenue, so it’s no surprise that administrators pay close attention to these numbers, with high scores often finding their