I understand why people would want to make sure people are "satisfied" with their hospital stay. I understand why hospitals would want to make changes based on these scores. However, the system is flawed and jacks up your healthcare costs.
For one, hardly anybody actually returns these things. Essentially, only the pissed off people send them back. I have been a patient in the ER and I ignored my survey. There was nothing special about my visit. I came, waited my turn, got treated, and went home. I didn't think there was anything worth bothering with the survey.
For another, the survey doesn't focus on what is important. My hospital got dinged on the fact that the kids didn't like the taste of the food they were offered. News flash, it's a hospital. We serve balanced meals, which means fruits and veggies on the plate. Every meal can't be chicken nuggets, mac-n-cheese, and french fries. That seems to be what the kids want, though.
We also got dinged because the sleeper chairs were uncomfortable. I am somewhat of a connoisseur of hospital sleeper chairs. They're ALL uncomfortable. They're hard and flat. They gotta be durable, since thousands of people use them. They gotta be easy to disinfect, because, well ew. Those things come before comfort. Oh, and they don't accommodate two adults. That's because they tend to want to make more kids on them. We got really dinged on the color scheme. No one who filled out the survey liked the color scheme.
Did I mention that we had maybe 5 surveys, out of hundreds of patients? None of them had any problems with nurse or physician communication skills, clinical skills, or anything important like that. So, to get higher satisfaction results, we are spending a buttload of money to redecorate, including replacing practically new sleeper chairs.
So, the next time you or a loved one are in the hospital, please fill out the survey. Be honest, but try not to rage on things like the wall color that have nothing to do with your medical care.
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