Survey techniques vary among facilities
Finding out what your physicians think about the service you provide to them is simply a matter of asking them for feedback, but how you obtain that feedback can differ according to your program’s culture and your physicians’ personalities. "My surgery center clinical staff and physicians are very accustomed to benchmarking projects and studies, so it was easy for us to decide to use a written survey," says Cheryl E. Dendy, RN, administrative director of St. John Surgery Center in St. Claire Shores, MI.
Dendy uses an outside company to produce, distribute and report the results of her physician survey (see survey vendors, at left), but says day-surgery programs with the resources of a larger institution may be able to handle it internally by using marketing, research, or information systems staff.
Don’t forget to reassure physicians that their responses will be confidential, suggests Dendy. "Because we are a small facility, the physicians feel that an outside company provides more confidentiality. This confidentiality may prompt some surgeons to be more open with criticism or suggestions," she adds. Written surveys are the primary tools to collect data on physician satisfaction for Dendy’s same-day surgery center, but she also holds informal conversations with physicians on a day-to-day basis.
Informal or "curbside chats" are good ways to get information, says William J. Mazzei, MD, medical director of perioperative services at the Univer-sity of California-San Diego Medical Center. To make sure doctors feel comfortable talking to you on the spur of the moment,go in the operating rooms frequently, he says. "If a surgery program director is a nurse, then he or she should circulate through the rooms and be visible. If the director is an anesthesiologist, he or she should be sure to work with all of the physicians, not just a few."
A common way to gather information is to listen to the "complaint-o-meter," says Mazzei. But if you only listen to the surgeons who feel strongly enough to complain, you’ll miss an opportunity for input from other surgeons who have suggestions for improvement, he adds.
To make sure that all physicians have a chance to be heard, administrative managers in Mazzei’s same-day surgery program schedule one-on-one interviews with physicians on a regular basis. "We set a specific time and place to meet so that part of the interview is formal, but the conversation is informal," he says. "We ask very general questions about problems the physicians may have encountered, and we always ask how can we improve our service to them or their patients."
Information from these interviews is collected and reviewed by the management team to determine if there is a need for following up on trends and taking action to improve service, he adds.
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