Press Ganey Insights

Medical Practice White Papers

Keeping Me Waiting: Medical Practice Wait Times and Patient Satisfaction
Patient-centered medical practices seek to make patients feel better, both physically and emotionally. One important aspect of the patient encounter that tends to be overlooked is the time spent waiting before a patient sees a physician. Often, medical practices are unsure of how to minimize wait times, or may chalk up waiting to an undesirable but normal aspect of business. However, waiting to see a physician is a huge dissatisfier that increases patient anxiety and is frequently cited as a reason why patients leave a practice. Improving actual wait times, as well as patients' perceptions of their wait, can result in increased patient satisfaction and improved bottom lines. (July 2009)

Reduce Liability Risk by Improving Your Patient Satisfaction
Patient satisfaction, or lack of it, is more of a driver of professional liability claims than previously thought. Medical practices can significantly reduce liability exposure when certain patient satisfaction strategies are genuinely incorporated. Patients desire a high level of service, particularly as their health care costs increase. Today's health care consumer seeks value, not just the top doctors and facilities. Patients are also becoming more knowledgeable about their medical conditions and care. (July 2008)

The Impact of Patient Satisfaction on Pay-For-Performance in Medical Practices
As patient-centered approaches to care become predominant in P4P programs, patient satisfaction measures provide a vital roadmap to efficient and effective enchancements in health care delivery that can increase performance as well as pay. (June 2008)

Will Your Patients Return? The Foundation for Success
Few professions have experienced as much change in the past two decades as physicians. Medical practices today are facing numerous challenges, including reduced payments, new pay-for-performance requirements, and higher malpractice rates. Costs are outpacing revenues, and margins are shrinking. If that were not enough, patient dissatisfaction with increasing costs and decreasing access to care is fundamentally changing consumer roles in the health care equation. Patients who pay more demand better service quality. If they do not get it, they go elsewhere. (July 2007)