The Improvement of Patient Satisfaction

Paper Info
Page count 4
Word count 1129
Read time 4 min
Topic Health
Type Coursework
Language 🇺🇸 US
Table of Contents

Introduction

It is a well-known fact that patient satisfaction is a factor that has a great impact on the healthcare organization’s position in the market. Therefore, hospitals strive to provide the highest levels of patient satisfaction. To do this effectively, it is necessary to analyze the most typical errors occurring in everyday work of the healthcare workers. One of the problematic issues that may decrease patient satisfaction is presented with the insufficient level of communication between the members of a healthcare team. Errors in communication will inevitably lead to mistakes of medical character, which should not be allowed under any circumstances. Therefore, as a group, we propose to organize a communication intervention for the improvement of patient satisfaction. As a result of this intervention, we hope to achieve the increase of HCAHPS (The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) scores. HCAHPS is a survey that evaluates patient satisfaction and whose performance is required by CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) for all US hospitals. Effective communication during nursing rounds can raise the patients’ satisfaction. Therefore, we would like to focus on the improvement of the employees’ communication skills.

Plan

For the planning stage, we shall gather a team of professionals from various departments of the hospital. Thus will enable sharing of information about our intervention and access of each employee to the campaign. Each team member shall receive a concrete task. Some people will be responsible for the organization of teaching procedures; others will prepare the necessary equipment, arrange the meetings, and evaluate the results after every stage of the campaign.

The aim statement of our project is “developing a communication intervention that will improve patient satisfaction.” To find out whether the intervention will have been successful, we shall measure patient satisfaction before and after the project.

At the stage of planning, we shall organize a survey among the employees and patients to find out how, in their opinion, communication impacts their work and satisfaction respectively. The desired accomplishment is to increase the employees’ communication quality and patient satisfaction.

Our problem statement is “poor communication disables nurses to share vital information effectively, which decreases patients’ satisfaction.” To overcome this problem, we shall introduce a project whose implementation will take two months, with three one-hour sessions a week. While it will require some financial support from the hospital, these expenses will undoubtedly be justified as the campaign is aimed to solve a crucial problem.

Do

At this stage, our group shall introduce the intervention to the employees. Prior to the first meeting, we shall organize the surveys and analyze their results. At the first meeting, we shall introduce the outcomes of the questionnaires to the personnel. While it will be required that certain representative of each hospital department should attend, everyone else will be welcomed at the meetings and lesson sections. During the first session, we shall also explain the purpose of the intervention and encourage the medical workers to share their experience of how communication errors impact the quality of care and, as a result, patient satisfaction.

At every session, various techniques will be employed to explain the importance of communication and teach medical workers how to organize their interaction in the most effective way. Evidence-based practice will be used as a part of sessions to demonstrate the examples of successful and poor communication patterns.

Since patients’ opinion is rather significant, they will also be invited to participate and express their views. By sharing the information about sessions with the help of leaflets and by word of mouth, we expect to organize the participation of many employees and patients.

After each meeting, we shall make charts indicating the attendance and the rate of interest of the participants. This will be done through analyzing how many people asked questions and expressed their ideas about the information presented during the session. We shall also take note of the problems that will have occurred during the lecture, as well as make general observations of the outcomes.

Study

The stage of studying is about analyzing the results of the two previous steps. At this point, we shall compare our aim statement to the outcomes of the intervention. By performing another set of surveys for employees and patients, we will be able to analyze a positive or a negative trend.

We expect a few or no side effects. If any adverse effects are noticed after the intervention, we shall perform a thorough analysis of what could have caused them and come up with the ways of overcoming the problematic issues.

We are convinced that the action will be worth the investment. To assess the beneficial outcomes, we shall employ such tools for visual review and evaluation of the improvement as control chart. With its help, we will assess the positive results of the intervention as well as any drawbacks in case they occur. If there are any successful trends, we will take note of them and come up with a plan of their further implementation in hospital’s organization.

To obtain a possibility for successful implementation of this stage, we shall need help from various departments. For instance, we will ask the hospital IT team to provide us with the necessary tools and equipment both for pre- and post-intervention activities and, most importantly, for the lectures where we will educate the staff and patients of successful communication methods. These specialists will also help us to organize the work of all technical devices so that no failures could appear during the sessions.

Act

At this stage, we shall reflect on our initial plan and the outcomes. We expect to have seen high attendance levels among every department’s representatives during the intervention. To ensure the most positive outcomes, every lecture will end with questions and answers session where each employee or patient will be able to find out any necessary additional information.

The final step of PDSA group project will deal with suggestions for future as a result of the obtained feedback. We expect to gain a better level of communication that will enable a higher level of patient satisfaction. The most beneficial practice issues will be noted and implemented in the further work of the hospital. In two months after the intervention, she shall organize another set of surveys to trace the progress of medical workers and the changes in patient satisfaction. Since there will be new patients, it will be easy to note any considerable changes in their satisfaction level.

We hope that the proposed communication intervention for the improvement of patient satisfaction will be successful, and it will be possible to use the results obtained from it to enhance the medical workers’ performance. Long-term plans for additional improvements include regular surveys and analysis of the employees’ communication skills and patients’ satisfaction.

Cite this paper

Reference

EssaysInCollege. (2022, June 11). The Improvement of Patient Satisfaction. Retrieved from https://essaysincollege.com/the-improvement-of-patient-satisfaction/

Reference

EssaysInCollege. (2022, June 11). The Improvement of Patient Satisfaction. https://essaysincollege.com/the-improvement-of-patient-satisfaction/

Work Cited

"The Improvement of Patient Satisfaction." EssaysInCollege, 11 June 2022, essaysincollege.com/the-improvement-of-patient-satisfaction/.

References

EssaysInCollege. (2022) 'The Improvement of Patient Satisfaction'. 11 June.

References

EssaysInCollege. 2022. "The Improvement of Patient Satisfaction." June 11, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/the-improvement-of-patient-satisfaction/.

1. EssaysInCollege. "The Improvement of Patient Satisfaction." June 11, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/the-improvement-of-patient-satisfaction/.


Bibliography


EssaysInCollege. "The Improvement of Patient Satisfaction." June 11, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/the-improvement-of-patient-satisfaction/.

References

EssaysInCollege. 2022. "The Improvement of Patient Satisfaction." June 11, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/the-improvement-of-patient-satisfaction/.

1. EssaysInCollege. "The Improvement of Patient Satisfaction." June 11, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/the-improvement-of-patient-satisfaction/.


Bibliography


EssaysInCollege. "The Improvement of Patient Satisfaction." June 11, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/the-improvement-of-patient-satisfaction/.