Follow the Improving Health Care Blog

“It’s the little things.”

I keep hearing this phrase from health care leaders, employees and physicians, and it’s true. When we talk about improving satisfaction of patients, physicians and employees, it’s those little things that can make a difference in how a patient feels about the care experience and how he or she may respond to survey questions.

So what are those little things? More importantly, how do we ensure we are consistently doing them ...

DALLAS – The Press Ganey National Client Conference wrapped up this afternoon, as more than 2,000 attendees headed home following two days and more than 50 presentations by industry experts and Press Ganey faculty.

During the event, attendees heard insightful presentations from actor and Parkinson's activist Michael J. Fox and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.

Breakout sessions featured detailed analyses of hot topics such as value-based purchasing (VBP), accountable care organizations (ACOs), patient ...

DALLAS – Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle told attendees at Press Ganey’s National  Client Conference this morning that current efforts by a congressional "super committee" to reduce federal  spending on Medicare and Medicaid should focus on true reform, not just cutting payment rates.

"We have to do a better job as a nation of distinguishing between cost-shifting and cost savings," he said. "Medicare and Medicaid budget cuts shift costs to hospitals. Raising the Medicare ...

DALLAS – Health care quality is now a global phenomenon, and the issues are remarkably similar no matter where medicine is practiced. That is a finding emerging an international track ongoing at Press Ganey's National Client Conference here.

This afternoon, presenters from two hospitals in Columbia described their use of Press Ganey's International Quality Indicator Project (IQIP) measurement, benchmarking and improvement tools. IQIP serves 130 hospitals in 17 countries.

Ana Lucia Correa Angel, MD, medical ...

DALLAS – Michael J. Fox gave health care providers an acting lesson this morning: “Don’t play the result.”

The actor, writer, Parkinson’s patient and leader of a foundation dedicated to research on the disease spoke to attendees at the Press Ganey National Client Conference. He recounted his early acting lesson, which translates to, “Don’t let the audience know what is about to happen in a scene through your body language.” In life, that means “don’t ...

DALLAS—Good morning and welcome to Press Ganey Associates’ 23rd annual National Client Conference. We’ll be live-blogging from this event all day today and tomorrow. Some 2,000 senior health care executives and quality improvement professionals have gathered here to share ideas and gain insights into health reform and other developments affecting hospitals, medical practices, home care and outpatient care.

The event takes place amid an unprecedented amount of change in health care. Health reform has brought ...

All I really need to know, I learned in kindergarten. This phrase popped into my head after a nurse said to me recently, “You guys just don’t realize that she is one of thousands of people we see just like her.”

I was in the hospital helping a loved one. I had asked the nurse to consider things from the point of view of the patient, who just hours earlier had surgery. I felt she ...