Customer Satisfaction and Healthcare
I recently ready an article about “mystery patients” in Modern Healthcare. Apparently some companies are hiring people to pose as patients in order to get a handle on customer satisfaction in a healthcare setting. The idea is modeled after “mystery shoppers” who show up in restaurants or other retail establishments, and provide reports on many aspects of the experience.
I’m wondering if this is a good idea in the healthcare sector. On the one hand, you could find out how long a person has to spend in the waiting room before they see a doctor. The problem is, this is just one person’s experience. If the office is backed up because of an emergency, or especially slow that day, it can give you inaccurate information about patient wait times. And how many mystery shoppers do you really want to send through your office? A much better measure would be to ask each person you see “How long did you spend in the waiting room today?” Bingo! You have your answer! Also, many doctors’ offices have patients sign in as to what time they arrived. Just having the receptionist write what time they are called back to the examining room will prevent any over- or under-estimating by the patient. Why use a “mystery patient” when you have real patients in your office every day that you can talk to? And besides, asking real patients how long they had to wait, or whether they felt like the doctor listened to their concerns will make them feel like you care, and let them know these things are importnat to you.
March 5th, 2009 at 12:59 am
While asking the patient how long she waited is good, it is of no use if the collector of the data is;
- apathetic (this can happen when it is a matter of routine)
- powerless to reduce the amount of waiting time
(fix the problem)
- part of the problem.
March 5th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
That is so true! Often people ask for satisfaction information when they either don’t feel that it’s going to be used (and are hence apathetic) or have no ability to do anything about the information they receive. It’s so important for organizations to have top down buy-in about the importance of collecting and USING the information.
March 25th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
The one obvious concern with “mystery shoppers” in a healthcare environment is how it could interfere with real care and real health needs. Having people “pose” as patients even if they have a medical need is a process that seems to be wrought with problems.
Wait times are a key driver to customer satisfaction in physician offices and emergency room settings. There are perceptions of time and then the reality of how much time is acceptable to spend in the physician’s office or emergency room. There are some very basic things that nurses and office staff can do to help improve the perception of time as well as the actually amount of time. Some very basic survey questions can be designed to measure this.
In the real world the best indicator of satisfaction is real patients with real problems and true to life perceptions.