In 2015, CAP partnered with SE Consulting to provide CAP member physicians and their staff with the Patient Experience Survey Program. The program is an important part of our strategic response to the present and our plans for the future.
CAP member physicians and their staff expend tremendous effort to create an environment of courtesy, calm, efficiency, and effectiveness to share with patients and their families. This is what we believe we are doing, but can we know how we are doing? Can we capture the voice of the patient and his or her family? Can we validate our belief and confirm that we are becoming the place and provider of choice?
In a recent webinar, "Learning From Patient Experience: Where We Have Been and Where We Can Go," Rachel Grob, PhD, noted, “The patient experience is no longer a ‘nice to know’ but a cornerstone of care.” The Patient Experience Survey’s clear and direct questions ask the patient about the courtesy, calmness, effectiveness, and efficiency we believe we provide. The patient’s responses are the measure of our success, or a guide to where and how we can improve. How does the evolving healthcare landscape relate to concerns regarding reimbursement, quality, safety, value, and patient choice?
Demonstrating our worth and value through measurement reflects our confidence and our flexibility as organizations, small or large, that can learn and adapt. Evaluating our work is not a discussion of right versus wrong or good versus bad. It is a consideration of what is and how to deal with it. Measuring the experiences of patients and families gives us feedback that can act as a bellwether or, in some cases, a red flag.
Purchasing healthcare is unlike other buying decisions. Demand is unpredictable and can be urgent, coming from a person in need with his or her own emotional, cultural, and financial context, and affected by availability and perceived quality.
Patient and family expectations are continually evolving, changing, and increasing, placing corresponding demands on the physician and staff. Earl Naumann, PhD, in his white paper, “Creating Customer Value, the linkage between value, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and profitability,” observes, “The rapidly changing, intensely competitive business environment of today demands that firms be proactive, innovative, and more customer-driven than ever before.”
We encourage CAP members to take advantage of the user-friendly technology of the Patient Experience Survey Program to obtain timely, relevant, meaningful, and useful feedback that validates the efforts of CAP member physicians and their staff to create environments, systems, and experiences that attract and retain patients. To paraphrase Mark P. Herzog in “How Real is Healthcare Consumerism?”, patients’ responses to CAP’s Patient Experience Survey will help member physicians’ practices “sustain and preserve the best parts, but make the changes patients need from us.”
Participating in the Patient Experience Survey Program is facilitated by Laurie Travisano at SE Consulting. For information and assistance with getting started, contact Laurie at lct@sehqc.com.
Carole Lambert is Vice President, Practice Optimization for CAP. Questions or comments related to this article may be sent to clambert@CAPphysicians.com.