Communication Strategy for the Health Care Leader

M3D2: Planning a Survey Campaign

The patient’s opinion of the quality of services provided by the organization is one aspect of evaluating the various contributions to overall quality. More emphasis is being placed on consumer-driven health care by state departments of health as well as the Affordable Care Act of 2010 when discussing quality initiatives. “Report cards” are being published online. These report cards address the level of services by individual providers and health care organizations. (Visit the website of your state department of health or human services and examine “quality” to review the report cards.)

Health care managers have a responsibility to help the organization measure the quality of patient care by not only listening to patients but also evaluating data. One of the most common methods to generate patient data on quality of services is through survey instruments. As a health care manager, you should be familiar with methods of collecting survey data. The most common means to collect survey data are: online surveys, telephone surveys, mailed surveys, or personal interviews.

Consider this scenario: You are working as a manager for a large hospital. The hospital routinely does telephone surveys one week after patient discharges. You are responsible for reviewing monthly reports based on survey results. The survey response rate is consistently around 45%. In the past three years you have reviewed the data, patients have overwhelmingly reported satisfaction with services. Over the past six months, you have noticed a significant increase in complaints to do with delays in response time of nursing staff when patients press their call button. Survey data indicates that patients report having to wait for up to an hour for assistance with issues such as getting to the bathroom.

Create a hypothetical research scenario based on the scenario presented. For the scenario, respond to the following:

1. How comfortable are you that the data accurately reflects the patient experience at your hospital? What information do you need to arrive at this determination?

2. This is a telephone survey. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages to employing telephone surveys?

3. Given the scenario, is there a better way to collect this type of data, and if so, what?