I am in the process of studying the impact (preferably in terms of
real dollars -- revenue increase, cost reduction) that patient and
provider satisfaction has on a hospital (for both in and out patient
services).  Satisfaction has always been a "softer" measure of success
as it is difficult to draw a short, straight line from satisfaction
to, for example,increased market share (although, intuitively, that
,makes sense).  Can you point me to any studies that have been done
which draw relationships between physician and patient satisfaction
and a hospitals "success"?  Additionally, any metrics and measures
along these lines would be extremely helpful.  Thank you.

Hello kms-ga:

It was a pleasure to work on your question. I was able to gather a
couple of case studies that relate to patient satisfaction to hospital
profits. There are also some articles that discuss the relationship of
doctor satisfaction to patient retention leading to hospital profits.
I have included other related studies that might or might not be
directly related.

In some cases, I have provided a brief summary of the study or
article. I hope that you will find the research useful. Please clarify
if you are not satisfied. I will follow up.

Following are the reports:

** Patient Satisfaction and the Healthcare today: A Trustee
Perspective

The paper discusses the relationship between patient satisfaction and
its impact on hospital revenues, Earning per adjusted admission and
much more.

http://www.tht.org/publications/bulletin/disc1.pdf

** Millions of Cash wandering through the Halls of your hospital

The report argues that employee engagement can result in increased
customer satisfaction and increase in revenue for the hospitals.

http://www.communityinitiatives.com/we/ROI.html

** Employee/patient & patient/Employee relationship study

http://www.scmc.org/healingourworkplace/media/employee-patient.pdf

** Pres Ganey: Patient Satisfaction Critical to Profitability

The document argues that the profitability of the hospital is in
direct relation to the satisfaction of its patients.

http://www.pressganey.org/newsflash/all_622003.pdf

** Patient satisfaction & Hospital profits

New study revels how patient satisfaction impacts hospital profits.
(read page 5 for additional article)

http://www.centralpahfma.org/AppalTrails/AppalTrail_July2001.pdf

** Success Stories: Universal Health Services Inc.

How one healthcare service reduces the operating cost due to customer
satisfaction?

http://www.deltaconsultants.com/success3.htm

** Healthcare Article

How hospitals profits depend on the doctor satisfaction?

http://www.expresshealthcaremgmt.com/20030415/management1.shtml

** Delnor Community Hospital Case Study

How one hospital saved over $800000 in one year due to patient
satisfaction?

http://www.hunterkane.com/case-studies/Delnor.pdf

Decreasing Cost and Increasing Patient Satisfaction

** Promoting Patient Satisfaction & Loyalty

http://www.thearsigroup.com/pdfdocs/PatientSatifactionNL.pdf

**************************************************************

Other Useful Articles


** The growing importance of patient satisfaction

http://www.chiroeco.com/article/2003/issue9/personal3.html

** Study finds more satisfaction in same-race doctor-patient
relationships

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-10/jhub-sfm102902.php

** Loyalty relationship to profits

http://www.expresshotelierandcaterer.com/20030728/management.shtml

** Patient satisfaction: Comparing Physician Assistants, Nurse
Practitioners and Physicians

http://www.kaiserpermanente.org/medicine/permjournal/sum97pj/ptsat.html

** Beyond Patient and Employee Loyalty

http://www.baptistleadershipinstitute.com/Resources/baptistlead.PDF

PHMS to reward bonuses on patient satisfaction

http://www.chestertontribune.com/PorterCounty/pmhs_to_award_employee_bonuses.htm


** Doctor and Patient relationship study

A patient's confidence in his or her doctor is an important element of
the patient-physician relationship. Of the several factors, how well
the doctor listens is most closely associated with confidence in the
doctor.

http://www.docrates.net/QuickReport/confidence.htm

** Reports on public perception on Doctors Ethical standards,
How confident are patients,
How important Americans consider maintaining personal relationship
with their doctors?
AND MORE

http://www.docrates.net/RecentContent/recentquickreports.htm

** The importance of Doctor patient communication (3 articles)

http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/amnews/pick_01/bisa0521.htm

http://www.hms.harvard.edu/dsm/WorkFiles/html/projects/current/ConferencePapers/Introduction.pdf

http://www.conversationsincare.org/web_book/chapter01.html

** Another Article

http://ideas.repec.org/p/hhb/hastba/1999_001.html

*****************************************************

BOOKS

The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits, and
Lasting Value
by Authors: Frederick F. Reichheld , Thomas Teal 
Released: February, 1996 
ISBN: 0875844480 
Hardcover

****************************************************
Useful Keywords:

Patient satisfaction AND hospital profits
Patient loyalty and profits
Importance of patient satisfaction
Patient loyalty
Doctor satisfaction and hospital profits
Factor contributing to hospital profits 
Physician satisfaction and profits

I hope my research will help. Please clarify if you need assistance.

Thank you for using Google Answers.

Sincerely,
Leader-ga.

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Request for Answer Clarification by kms-ga on 29 Aug 2003 07:37 PDT

Thank you for the prompt response.  I found a good bit of the
information helpful.  I was surprised, however, that there were no
government sponsored studies uncovered by your research.  Given what
CMS and JCAHO are up to in focusing more on satisfaction (patient and
physician) as measures of "good" hospitals I thought you may find some
studies that substantiated why it is worthwhile to look at these
measures.  Is this an area that you looked into?

Thanks.

---

Clarification of Answer by leader-ga on 29 Aug 2003 08:22 PDT

Thank you for clarifying. Although, I looked into the topic but now
let me focus on it and see what I may find. I will let you know of my
proceedings.

Sincerely,
leader-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by leader-ga on 29 Aug 2003 13:06 PDT

Hello kms-ga:

Here are some more studies that I was able to find. I am doing more
research in order to see if I can find more. Thanks.

** PressGaney Patient Satisfaction Measures

Browse through huge number of useful articles on patient satisfaction
and healthcare.

http://www.pressganey.org/research/resources/satmon/text/articlesgr.shtm

** Non financial Performance measures

A study of Nonfinancial performance measures in the health care
industry and how the hospitals can benefit from them.

http://www.business.auburn.edu/~bballou/MANACCTQRTsubmission.pdf

******************************************************

The following articles on patient satisfaction measures may be useful:

 http://kac-business.org.uk/qps.doc

http://www.jrk.com/documents/5.1.1.1%20Measuring%20Strategic%20Success_08_02.pdf

http://checksutterfirst.org/thesutterdifference/tools.html

http://www.health.ri.gov/chic/performance/quality/quality14.pdf

http://www.partnershc.com/pdf/2001/November_2001.pdf