• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Sufficient staff, satisfied physicians make for happier patients

Healthcare Strategist Trend Watch, July 14, 2006

The two factors that most influence a patient's decision about whether to recommend their hospital to others are how the staff responded to their concerns during their hospital stay and how much of an effort the staff made to include them in treatment decisions.

The South Bend, IN-based healthcare consulting firm Press Ganey Associates, says in its 2006 Health Care Satisfaction Report that higher satisfaction scores, and therefore, more referrals, correlate with having sufficient staff to provide high-quality care. Press Ganey reviewed data from 2.2 million patients who had inpatient stays at 1,600 U.S. hospitals.

Physician satisfaction is one critical factor in patients' perceptions, according to the report. The more satisfied a doctor is with the hospital, the better his or her patients feel about their treatment. The researchers conclude that this is because doctors are more loyal to hospitals that focus on patient satisfaction.

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive