I have always commented on the idea that the one thing that will help control healthcare costs and, at the same time, increase patient satisfaction will be competition.

When a company has to fight for customers, clients or patients it will provide a better experience for its clients. It is an axiom that is true for every business, why not healthcare?

Glad to hear this is beginning to take off in the healthcare industry.

yes, healthcare is changing. I'm of the opinion that insurance is making healthcare MORE expensive. We took out daughter into the emergency room on April 23. Today is July 8th and we STILL DON'T HAVE THE BILL RESOLVED! No wonder it's so freakin' expensive!

I had an amazingly good experience at St. Vincent's Hospital in Santa Fe last summer with a sprained ankle that, thanks in large part to their treatment, did not stop me from walking all over Paris and then cycling around the Ypres Salient in Belgium two weeks later. I wasn't a local, so we went to the emergency room, and my husband was told by a colleague that it wasn't a very good hospital, which had us worried. But he was mistaken--I was seen promptly and the nurses and lab technicians knew exactly what they were doing. They were very nice and talked to me throughout, and I was sent home with a splint, lots of ice, medication I ended up not needing, and detailed instructions on how to speed up the healing. They were even able to get me an appointment with a local orthopedist the following week.

When I got the survey form from them I gave them a glowing review--and I sent them a donation as a kind of thank you, because the community they serve is very poor. And, from what I saw of interactions between hospital staff and other patients, some of whom were older Pueblo Indian ladies who seemed extremely uncomfortable about being inside a hospital, they serve the community very well. It's a far cry from the Chicago hospital where I was treated like a slab of meat ten years ago for a mysterious, frightening digestive ailment that went away on its own before I ever did get diagnosed.

I always fill out those surveys we get sent. I think the positive feedback is reinforcing--it helps to be told that taking the time and improving interactions with patients is worthwhile.

Glad to hear your experience was good. Yes, we in healthcare are FINALLY "getting" the customer focus.

The CYA stuff--all part of the big patient safety push and everything you described in your blog and much more is now mandated by our accrediting agencies.

How do we attract and maintain loyal customers is definitely a focus now. In fact many sources have identified the two most important questions on patient satisfaction surveys to be: "Rate the overall quality of the care you received" and "How likely are you to recommend this facility to others". We look for what percentage of our patients rate us "top box" on both of these questions.

Healthcare--on one hand we are "cutting edge" (no pun intended)in terms of medical advances and on the other we are behind the curve in business principles. Hopefully someday we'll be in the lead on both! (I can dream)

Yeah to follow-up with Donna that whole "every person checked my id" deal is JCAHO standards (Good to hear that there is a facility that seems to actually be complying though).

Healthcare is a wacky business; foremost of course if the conflict of interest that occurs when your doctor profits from giving you the treatments that he recommends! That and as was mentioned (sort of) above, hospitals have tolerated lousy customer service and quality numbers that would have any normal business raising hell to correct. I'm still not sure that I understand the customer deal though, if your insurance mandates which hospital you go to then what does it matter what you think of that hospital? -D

Vincenzo's ...

David ... no comments on today's post, however am visiting in Santa Monica for a long weekend and ate tonight at Vincenzo's, based on your recommendation a few weeks ago. It was great! Vincenzo was a perfect host and the food / service was excellent.

Thanks for the recommendation,

Ranny

Interesting post David. I had a similar experience at a small hospital in Fallbrook a year ago. The customer service was way above normal and the people turned a "scary" experience into a pleasant one. I think the more choices that people have in healthcare the better the service will be. People will definitely go where the service is better.

I suppose if you an afford health care you might see a difference. I haven't been able to afford insurance for years.

Yep - had to initial my knee the same way. Glad you're ok David.

Actually, I think that it is. I went to HealthPartners Riverside here in Minneapolis a few months ago, and was absolutely stunned at the level of care they were providing.

It's probably a combination of "getting it" finally, and improved efficiency thanks to IT solutions.

Yes! Health care is changing.

I had an identical experience (and surgery) here in the Puget Sound at the Surgery Center at Highline Community Hospital five weeks ago today.

My wife and I noticed similar levels of care at Virginia Mason last year when she had a simple surgical procedure.

My thesis is that ideas of informed concent and the autonomy of the patient as a whole person are moving through the system, with the newer physicians having not experienced it any other way.

A very significant portent that I noticed was when a hospital was brave and trusting enough to apologize for an error that led to a fatality.

This strikes me as a major shift in trust.  I also know there is a downside.  My personal physician seems more harried, and a skilled surgeon confided in me that if he were chosing to go into medicine today, he might not, and he's not sure he would recommend it, although he loves what he does.  I think it is a problem with constant worrying about the consequences of error and feeling seriously micro-managed by remote bureaucratic forces.

In the case of my hernia surgery, I learned that if I had elected it after new regulations go into effect, I would have to have been put on beta blockers because someone decided to define a risk group for surgical heart and stroke risk that I would have fit into (age and high cholesterol even though that is now controlled by medication, diet, and exercize).  I wonder if there's no room for judgment of individual circumstances and consulting with the patient about it.  [;<).

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Of course it is fact the realities of health care and the actual role of hospital came in surface when a person falls very sick.

Health system is big problems in all over the world in my country the health department has declared the existing rate contract for the purchase of medicine five year ago but still yet we no receive any progress in this matters.