Survey says: Give staff recognition

If a satisfaction survey includes any positive feedback about an access employee at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, this does not go unnoticed.

Any positive comments are passed along directly to the appropriate employee, and a recognition system is in place. Employees receive a personal letter of thanks from the hospital's CFO and are recognized in the "Kudos" section of the monthly patient access newsletter.

Monthly satisfaction scores and goals are reviewed with all department employees. Patient access supervisors also receive the detailed results of the various surveys. "They are responsible for researching every comment and every account listed," says Duke Bowen, BS, CHAM, associate director of patient access. The goal is to recognize individuals for exemplary service, offer any necessary coaching or training, or provide disciplinary action if warranted.

Use separate surveys

"We are lucky that currently we have surveys that are associated with separate and distinct hospital services," says Bowen. "Therefore, we are generally able to match up the feedback with the particular patient access registration points."

Currently, separate surveys are used for inpatient, ambulatory surgery, and emergency department services. An outpatient survey for laboratory or other diagnostic testing outpatient services is being implemented.

Typically, access gets high scores on the ambulatory surgery survey. This shows that processes and services are working well in the same-day surgery center, women's surgical center, and general operating room registration areas.

"We are lucky that the hospitalwide patient satisfaction initiatives are supported and monitored at the highest levels of the executive leadership team," says Bowen. "So the data, good and bad, as part of the structured process, are intrinsically shared with senior leaders."

A dedicated director of service excellence assists the department in monitoring and meeting its patient satisfaction goals.

Senior leadership also recognize departments by conducting "rounds" and in-person visits. Good results are recognized by presenting gift baskets to be shared with employees. Official "Certificates of Achievements" are given, and proudly displayed.

"We were recently pleased to have received one of these certificates in recognition of achieving our patient satisfaction percentile goal for the third-quarter of FY 2010," reports Bowen.