Welcome back to week two of Spine IQ’s Back Blog! This month we’re focusing on a topic that is critical to the future of conservative spine care – data. Data isn’t just for researchers anymore, it is vital to clinical practice. This week we’re focusing on the importance of using data to better understand the patient experience AND how to use that information to improve clinician performance and improve the quality of patient care.
Let’s dive into why measuring patient satisfaction is so important to you as a clinician and how you can measure it. Understanding the patient experience enables you to identify areas where your care meets or exceeds your patient’s expectations as well as areas you can improve upon. With this accurate information you can then adopt direct data-driven change specific for your facility. The Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research has developed a number of patient experience surveys, a large majority of which fall into a group of surveys called the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS). These scientifically developed surveys use a standardized set of questions to provide reliable assessments regarding the patient experience, allowing for comparison between clinicians and/or across healthcare delivery systems. This is important because if you simply do a survey in your office which has not been tested for reliability, the results may be not only inaccurate but will not enable you to meet the patient’s experience with any degree of confidence.
Aside from clearly identifying areas for improvement with care, patient surveys can provide insight into other aspects of your clinical practice. A correlation exists between reduced risk of malpractice claims and better patient experiences as measured by post-appointment patient satisfaction surveys (1). By measuring your own patients’ experiences with your care, you can help safeguard against, and amend, any potentially dissatisfied patients. Additionally if a patient is satisfied with you as a provider and their overall office experience(staff, environment, equipment, etc.), they are more inclined to recommend your care to others. Patient surveys can also assess parts of the entire patient experience at your office, from your staff’s assistance to the simplicity in scheduling an appointment.
Spine IQ makes it easy to measure patient satisfaction in your office by collecting the data for you! All you do is provide the patient with either a phone number or QR code and ask them to complete a 3 minute survey using their smart phone or computer. Having trained staff and a private area to complete this in office will greatly enhance the information obtained. To access the survey on-line to see the questions and what it is like to complete, click here. To see an example of the report you will get quarterly from Spine IQ, click here. To sign up, click here!
DATA is the 21st century driver of patient satisfaction!
References:
- Stelfox HT, Gandhi TK, Orav EJ, Gustafson ML. The relation of patient satisfaction with complaints against physicians and malpractice lawsuits. Am J Med. 2005 Oct;118(10):1126-33. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2005.01.060. PMID: 16194644.