Patient Satisfaction Survey Form: Fill & Download for Free

Ok, here’s what happened: in the early 1990’s, when I began my clinical rotations, opioids were generally reserved for fractures, post-surgical pain, and cancer pain. Around that time, two things occurred: there was a movement to address undertreatment of pain by patient advocate groups, later sponsored largely by companies that provided newer opioid analgesics - specifically Purdue Pharmaceuticals w/oxycontin; and the Press-Ganey patient satisfaction surveys were introduced as a way for hospitals to be responsive to patient concerns and complaints. Patients, at least in the ED, who were hell bent on scoring opioids had only to fill out a negative PG survey to hurt a doctor who wasn’t taking their pain seriously - valid in some cases, but in other cases, a form of revenge that actually impacted careers and income for doctors.In my residency, which lasted from 1995–1999, we were told to take the patient’s complaint of pain at face value. Even today, texts state that self-report, using a visual analog scale, is the most reliable indicator of pain. So doctors, most of whom practice in good faith, tend to treat reported pain. Still, I know from personal experience that it is an uncomfortable situation for a patient to be in - I would probably have to be near death from pain before I would ask for a pain med, since I am afraid to be labeled as a “drug seeker.” That is a result of my experience personally as a physician and from listening to colleagues - it is a real song and dance between doctor and patient when it comes to prescribing pain meds. Who leads? Who follows? Etc.And there’s this: the increasing shift in medicine from a profession to a profit center for a few corporations led to cuts in staff and time pressures that shred the ability of doctors to fully evaluate and counsel patients on their pain. My ED implemented an annoying system, after getting rid of things like our stat lab and ED pharmacy - they put a red blinker on the computer to alert us when a patient had been in the waiting room—something we had no control over—for longer than 30 minutes. The message: move them in and out. Fast.Purdue Pharmaceutical should get a lot of the blame for the current crisis, as they almost single-handedly brought about this revolution in prescribing opioids for chronic non-cancer pain. They addressed the earlier fear that patients would get addicted by quoting (with the suggestion that they were quoting an actual RCT) a letter to the editor of a journal, which stated that a small sample of patients treated for pain with opioids in the author’s practice had not become addicted, therefore patients treated for pain with opioids could not become addicted. In other words, Purdue promoted anecdote as evidence and they managed, through intensive marketing, to convince the world of something that simply wasn’t true. Keep in mind, one of the three Sackler brothers who owned Purdue Pharma was an advertising genius, who had achieved a significant accomplishment a couple of decades earlier: he managed to make Valium the first “blockbuster” drug by marketing it as a benign aid to mitigate the stress of modern life, particularly for housewives.Purdue then proceeded to hire a bunch of doctors to speak to their colleagues, convincing them to try Oxycontin as a solution to troublesome patients with chronic pain. They managed to use these doctors to promote their non-evidence. Those troublesome patients, in many cases, became addicted. Some of those patients had real pain. Others had existential pain. Have you ever tried opioids? They tend to smooth out the rough edges of the moment. That might seem helpful, until you realize that a tolerance develops rapidly and dependence means eventual withdrawal.Purdue also shipped massive quantities - dumped them, really - of oxycontin into warehouses that distributed massive quantities into communities throughout the US, even after the DEA and their own executives pointed out red flags. Pill mills sprouted up all over the landscape. People spent all of their time moving from clinic to clinic, pharmacy to pharmacy - obtaining massive amounts of opioids with relative ease - and becoming, often fatally, dependent.When communities started to realize what was happening, it still took several years before they were able to shut it down - and then the drug supply dried up in terms of “legal” prescription drugs. But people were still addicted. And the Mexican cartels moved in, supplying heroin through a decentralized supply network that was efficient and profitable. And our government really failed to punish corporate malfeasance - the living Sacklers of Purdue Pharma are comfortable in their Stamford mansions, after paying trivial fines on their billion dollar drug dealing spree.There’s also this: the recovery industry is largely geared towards 12-step programs that can be cheaply run for maximum reimbursement but have less efficacy than medication assisted treatment for addicts and even alcoholics. This is the industry that fails to offer heroin addicts opioid maintenance therapy on discharge from a largely useless and overpriced stay in a residential treatment center, resulting in many unnecessary deaths, at the cost of broken families, relationships, and lives.Abstinence only programs like AA or NA “frown on” opioid maintenance therapy, yet it is the gold standard for treatment and, in terms of cost, it is much, much lower than the cost of ineffective residential treatment by untrained, non-medical personnel. I personally think these centers should be sued by families who lose their loved ones to overdose, particularly those many cases that occur shortly after discharge. Most of these centers do not provide outcome studies, something that is unacceptable in any other field of medicine. Here’s the other part of the abstinence-only paradigm: without it, the drug-testing industry, worth billions annually, would go bust.This is a societal problem—a problem of profit over people, a problem of easy money and a scheme in which too many beneficiaries can buy a place at the policy table. The recovery industry was largely behind passage of mental health parity. Ask yourself why there are more treatment facilities than mental health facilities in this country and, while you are at it, ask yourself why we spend trillions to reimburse the 17,000 plus facilities in this country while the problem gets worse and has actually lowered life expectancy in the US for the second year in a row.

This is quite literally what I study for a living.At the most basic, treat the person not the disease, and listen.It’s quit simple. It’s also incredibly challenging in today’s healthcare environment.Most health systems of any size do patient satisfaction surveys in their medical clinics, and hospitals are required to at least perform HCAHPS surveys required for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. There are several major national vendors that provide survey services, and some form of analytics.I look deeper into various aspect of satisfaction to find what factors most heavily influence things like confidence in the care provider, likelihood to recommend to others, etc. We look at demographic differences in patient experience which can reveal differences in expectations among various populations.What satisfies a parent seeing a pediatrician with their child will differ from a cancer patient seeing a medical oncologist. There are peculiarities that arise between specialties and patient populations.This holds true in the medical clinic setting as well as the hospital setting. ER experiences are different than inpatient experiences. Maternity ward experiences are very different from orthopedic units, or cardiac ICU.But really in the end, it all boils down to communication and being treated as a whole person.

The biggest mistake I made was selling something people needed badly but didn't want to pay for.I was running a training company. We developed a training methodology that was fairly revolutionary - both the content and the modality. We taught front line care givers (doctors, nurses, in patient psych, security, social workers) to form rapport very rapidly with and show active empathy to patients. We did it by using immersive training, essentially bringing in improv actors to play difficult patients and walking staff through a process for relating to them.The research showed this could be a huge boon to patients. You get better treatment results across many conditions when patients trust care givers and when caregivers can find out what stands between a patient and good care. There's a well-documented relationship between increasing staff compassion, increasing patient satisfaction, making more more revenue, and lowering your medical malpractice cost. In fact, medical malpractice risk is more closely associated with poor bedside manner than with poor treatment outcomes.So, the evidence was overwhelmingly on our side. And I built a thought leadership platform:I wrote a book that was named an award-winning finalist for a national book award.Our book release campaign netted strong endorsements from over 20 industry leaders and trade organizations, such as the American College of Physician Executives, the Association of Managed Care Nurses, the American Society of Hospital Risk Management, the National Association of Home Care and Hospice, and many others. RN Journal called it “the antidote for what’s missing in nursing education.” The Alabama State Nurses Association has adopted it as CME. A Vice President of Patient Services called it "a significant contribution to the humanization of healthcare". And we had many more strong endorsements.Our newsletter, visibly better care, had a list of several thousand and won an award for publication excellence.I presented to Hospitals and health care organizations as a podium speaker.We wrote three whitepapers documenting how our skill set would lower medical malpractice costs, increase revenue, and improve care for diverse populations. The whitepapers were picked up and redistributed by a quality assurance organization for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (the largest insurer in the United States).And I was a one time or regular contributor to a number of medical publications.We held training for a number of top hospitals in our region and around the country as well as nursing schools.But I list all of the stuff above because the important part is that despite the evidence and positive reviews, we could not get traction.Finally, one of my contacts at a hospital pulled me aside and said, "Tim, you are not going to be able to make this go. If I were to put all my nurses through your training, it would cost me $40,000 in labor costs, not to mention the cost of your training. And that's just to put them through once."The net is that there's a big market for Patient Satisfaction surveys and reporting, and probably even speaking on patient satisfaction. But there isn't a demand for the training which is what my firm was set up to do.In fact, I ended up pivoting into digital marketing of all things. Marketing my firm and our training, I had learned so much about digital marketing and thought platforms, that I was getting more leads about how I had marketed our training than I was for the training itself.About 6 months ago, one of my big accounts was a home health care provider, one of the biggest in Washington State. I got to know the owner pretty well and sent him my book on a whim.He called me a few days later asking about the book and asking why I was doing digital marketing instead of this training. He said the home health care industry was in the throes of looking for just this kind of information.I asked him how much his firm would pay us to train all his home care workers. He said, "Tim, I could get you 5 platform speeches next month. And then...no one would hire you. Nobody can afford this kind of training."So, if you were to look up answers I've given in the start up space on Quora, you'd find that I now recommend customer development before product development. And I bang the drum for Steve Blank and his Lean Start Up philosophy. Because I've lived the downside of pouring years of your life and stacks of your money into a product that people need badly...and just don't want to pay for.