Paying Hospitals to Be Nice
Special air-blowing vests keep patients warm pre-surgery. Private rooms are the norm. Staffers regularly check in with patients to anticipate their toilet and showering needs to cut down on call-light usage. Patients are given clear discharge instructions. Cleaning is no longer done at night. Patients are taught the difference between “pain-free” and “pain-controlled.”
The reason for these changes at Providence Park and similar ones at other hospitals across the country is to ensure high scores on patient satisfaction surveys, the results of which will affect Medicare reimbursement rates, starting next year.
At issue are millions of dollars annually, all the more significant as the industry sees so many other dollars slipping away. In fiscal year 2013, for example, the pot is $964 million, according to the federal government’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Source: USA Today.
I don’t see this as a problem. There’s nothing worse than disinterested hospital staff. Yeah, I get that they see this sort of thing all the time, but feeling like you’re just along for the ride during your own treatment is awful.
Hey, if you pay me…I’ll be nice too.
I don’t see anything wrong with this either. It seems like a win-win situation for everyone involved. Patients get good care, and hospitals get good ratings. Sounds like a good idea to me.
I don’t know what to think about all of this. Hospitals design reflects regulations, requirements by payers and Joint Commission. The hospital lobby and gift shop tends to look and feel like of a 5-star hotel. But other than that, consumer preferences aren’t really considered that much. Hospitals want to attract insured patients. But that really isn’t the same as how hospitals would market themselves if patients had to pay the full bill themselves.
“However, what hospitals are doing now is, for the most part, tailored to the survey questions they know patients will be asked.”
Hopefully we are asking the right questions then. The real test will be the statistical study showing the effect of high satisfaction ratings on outcomes.
In our neck of the woods, they focus on patient amenities but #1 is paramedic / EMT hospitality with lots of fresh food and drinks ready when they arrive. . . because where the ambulance driver zooms to. . .the patient arrives. . .and the real money follows.
Dorothy Calabrese, M.D.
Allergy & Immunology San Clemente, CA
I heartily agree with the patient education aspect. During my time in the perioperative areas, I found that the happiest patients were the ones that knew what to expect. They were in pain, or sore, but they were not unduly cross about it. The surgery staff had made sure that the patients had very few surprises.
Sometimes good survey results depend on doing what the patient wants – more drugs, more treatments, longer stay – so this could increase medical costs with no associated health benefit.