by Carol A. Westbrook
In case you have never seen one, a Press Ganey survey is a multi-page questionnaire in which you asked to rate your experiences during a hospital or outpatient clinic visit, from 0 (bad) to 5 (best). The completed questionnaire is mailed to Press Ganey, which compiles and analyzes the data, and reports the results to the hospital or health care system that ordered the survey.
The survey asks questions like, “Did you have to wait long to see your doctor? Was the staff pleasant? Was the waiting room clean? Did your doctor take enough time to explain things to you? Did your doctor smile and shake your hand? Did the valet parker return your car promptly?” It also does not ask questions that the health care organization does not want to hear, for example, “Was your doctor given enough time with you? Did you actually get to see the doctor instead of the nurse practitioner? “Press Ganey has been called an Angels' List for clinics and hospitals.
That is why administrators love Press Ganey surveys–because they know that good scores will bring in more business. They also have the side benefit of providing an outlet for unsatisfied or angry patients who otherwise would be pounding on their door. Giving a doctor a “0” makes a disgruntled customer feel that he is addressing a problem, without the manager ever having to do anything about it!
Most importantly, though, patient satisfaction scores provide “objective” data that can be used to manipulate physicians by lowering their salaries or even firing them if they do not maintain a high score.