Patient satisfaction is rapidly growing as a method of measuring the quality of care provided by a physician assistant. Learning how to interact with patients in addition to studying medical treatments has become an important part of physician assistant education.
Far from just being touchy-feely or always giving in to patients, patient satisfaction could be seen as a key to the success of a physician assistant – namely, by improving patient compliance (and thus patient outcomes) as well as financial reimbursement.
Are Your Patients Satisfied?
When clinicians think of treating a patient, they often think in terms of standards of care. However, when a patient considers his satisfaction with his treatment, many more factors may come into play.Consider a study of breast cancer patients, cited in the Dallas/Fort Worth Healthcare Daily, that reported 88% of patients received treatment that was consistent with the best treatment guidelines, yet only 55% of patients graded their care as “excellent.”
Additional factors such as communication, facility cleanliness, time spent waiting, and hospitality may shape a patient’s satisfaction. These factors are collectively referred to as the “process of care.” In other words, it’s not what a clinician does when he treats a patient, but how he and his staff do it. A clinician that fails to meet the patient’s process of care expectations may lead to the patient leaving their encounter unsatisfied despite the fact that the standard of care was met or exceeded.
What Makes Patient Satisfaction So Tricky?
Patient satisfaction also matters from the perspective of health care as an industry. Before buying a product, it’s increasingly common for someone to first go online, read other peoples’ reviews of the product, and compare it to similar products.We can see the same approach for the healthcare industry. Before selecting a clinician or a hospital, a patient may refer to websites that collect patient reviews and other data about a clinician or a facility.
One particularly significant website run by the Medicare system is Hospital Compare. Hospital Compare compiles both objective data, like patient volume and mortality rates, and subjective ratings by patients of their process of care experience.
What Role do Physician Assistants Play in the Patient Satisfaction Process?
The potentially good news for physician assistants is that they may be able to improve both the process of care and the financial bottom line of a medical practice. One study conducted titled “Patient Satisfaction With Primary Care: Does Type of Practitioner Matter?” by Douglas W. Roblin, Edmund R. Becker, Kathleen E. Adams, David H. Howard, and Melissa H. Roberts in 2004 showed that patients were more satisfied with their interaction with PAs than with physicians.In addition, according to a report published by the American Academy of Physician Assistants titled “Hiring a PA, The Benefits for Physicians and Practices,” PAs may generate far more revenue for a practice than they are paid by the practice in salary. These are all important matters to take into account when trying to discern how much your practice and/or health center would benefit from contracting a physician assistant.
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