The words “patient satisfaction” elicit a wide variety of emotions in emergency physicians. Some immediately become angry and feel like the entire concept has been foisted upon them by hospital administrators only interested in market share and the bottom line. Some feel victimized by the move on the part of the federal government and third-party payers to tie payment to quality and patients’ perceptions of their experience. Others feel that the push for patient satisfaction leads to physicians acquiescing to patients and giving them whatever they ask for, including opiate medication prescriptions or advanced imaging studies such as CTs or MRIs, when those prescriptions and diagnostic studies are truly not in patients’ best interests. For some, it is not the concept of patient satisfaction but rather how it is measured and then used as a quality metric to judge physicians that creates concern. However, others believe that patient satisfaction and clinical quality are intimately interdependent and so patient satisfaction is part and parcel of being an outstanding physician.
Read the full article, written by Dr. Jay Kaplan, Studer Group Coach and Speaker, published by ACEP Now here:
http://www.acepnow.com/article/better-clinical-outcomes-patient-satisfaction-go-hand-hand-emergency-physicians/.