Hospital Patient Satisfaction Scores Fall To Six Year Low

If you have seen the Patient Satisfaction scores at your hospital dip, you are not alone. According to the American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) hospital patients are unhappier than they have been in six years. The average score is 73 out of 100. Emergency Departments have fared even worse with an average score of 54 out of 100. The only area showing an increase was Ambulatory Care which rose 1% to 81.

This is obviously bad news for everyone except for consultants like us here at Compirion who make a living helping hospitals improve metrics such as Customer Service scores. In this current climate of consumer driven healthcare and demand for high value hospitals it is particularly important that hospitals satisfy their patients. Exceeding expectations is not just a trite motto but a necessary business strategy for survival. Simply put; satisfying patients leads to growth in new business.

Perhaps you can look at the current drop in customer service scores as a business opportunity to get a jump on the competition. Something is happening across the nation. Emergency Departments saw a 12% dip in satisfaction scores for the first quarter of this year. They drug overall hospital scores down 5% with them. This is just more proof of how vitally important the ED's reputation is on the entire hospital.

By the way, we can't blame the dip on a sour economy that just has people upset in general. According to ACSI, energy was the only other industry besides healthcare to see a drop. All others have seen increases. The report does not explain why there has been such a drop and I must confess that I am at a loss to explain this as well. I invite anyone with a perspective on this to please share their opinions. From my viewpoint, hospitals are focusing on this now more than they ever have before. If you have not done so yet, now is a golden opportunity.

More on this later.

Mark Brodeur