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One of the new consulting services offered by Press Ganey has helped a number of hospitals significantly improve patient flow throughout their organizations. As a result of these projects, the involved hospitals have been able to accommodate growth in surgical volumes within their existing operating rooms even while waiting times for urgent/emergent surgical cases decreased. The accuracy of the surgical schedule improved dramatically, and the percentage of patients placed right away in a unit specializing ...

There has been a recent resurgence in the popularity of The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) Questions are the Answer campaign among health care advocates across the country. Unfamiliar with the campaign? Check out this quick 30-second video and its newly revamped web site.



A little over a year ago, AHRQ partnered with the Ad Council to create a series of videos to help encourage patients to take a more active role in ...

I recently had the wonderful experience of attending the annual Malcolm Baldrige conference, Quest for Excellence, which takes place in Washington, D.C., each April and highlights the processes and results of the current year’s award recipients as well as others from years past.

One of the sessions I attended was an interactive discussion that focused on core competencies – how organizations determine what they are and how they use them to gain a competitive advantage. ...

I recently participated on a panel at the 2010 Bloomberg Health and America Briefing in Chicago on the challenges of implementing health care reform. My part of the event was on the patient experience now and in the future. I thought I would share some of the observations I made there.

How happy are patients with the care they receive? In general, they are actually pretty happy. More than nine out of 10 patients rate ...

I get discouraged when I hear people talking about patient satisfaction in a way that limits it to “hospitality” or “concierge care.” Often their intentions are in exactly the right place, but this type of definition can be the reason that patient-centeredness gets marginalized as a pleasant but not particularly essential byproduct of good clinical care. The heart of service excellence is not just in service but in compassion – a core component of alleviating ...