MGMA Finds Link Between Better Performance and Surveying Patient Satisfaction

Could simply asking your patients about their experience with your practice improve your performance? A survey of Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) members indicates that yes, it may. Almost 80 percent of medical practices deemed “better-performers” in the MGMA 2012 survey of members reported using patient-satisfaction surveys. Compared with other practices, better-performers were more likely to assess patient satisfaction in their practice and did so more frequently.

 According to Kenneth T. Hertz, FACMPE, principal of the MGMA Health Care Consulting Group, practices gain a great deal of useful information from regularly asking patients for their feedback. “That feedback is particularly useful as medical groups seek to improve and elevate the care they provide,” he noted in a press release.
One in 10 of the practices also reported tying patient satisfaction scores to physician compensation — a trend that has been of concern to radiologists and imaging center managers who typically have less direct influence over patient satisfaction than colleagues in specialties that interact more directly with patients. However, there are steps imaging center managers and radiologists who run a practice or department can take to improve satisfaction scores, notes William R. Johnson, CRA, MBA, RT, system director of patient experience with Memorial Health System in Springfield, Ill. Read his Six Steps for Improving Patient Satisfaction.