Friendly Competition Improves Patient Satisfaction Scores at 3 Clinics

Three UW Health family medicine clinics—Cottage Grove, McFarland, and Monona—recently participated in a three-month internal competition to provide the friendliest patient service, as measured by the Press Ganey Patient Satisfaction Survey.

Overall, the McFarland clinic had the most improved scores for both the complete survey and its four friendliness questions, coming very close to earning Star Clinic status.

But most important, the clinics had fun competing with one another—and providing friendlier patient service along the way.

Focus on What You Can Control

Ellen Johnson, who at the time managed the three clinics, said the idea for the competition came out of a discussion with Margo Bida, director of patient satisfaction for UW Health.

Johnson was looking for a new way to improve patient satisfaction scores at the clinics, but knew that staff couldn't easily improve deeper organizational challenges like appointment availability or physician delays.

"Margo's philosophy was: there are four questions on the Press Ganey survey about friendliness," Johnson said. "Those are things every staff member can control, and if you focus on them, in theory, everything thing will move along with it."

Competition and Results

In August, September, and October of 2009, Johnson tracked each clinic's Press Ganey scores on friendliness of:

• the person scheduling the appointment;
• the registration staff;
• the nurse or assistant; and
• the care provider.

She also tracked each clinic's overall Press Ganey score.

As it turned out, each clinic had a month in which it had the most improved scores. Each month, Johnson encouraged the non-winning clinics to recognize the winning clinic in some small way.

"They really had fun with it," she laughed. "They organized baskets, sent root beer floats, delivered desserts and wrote congratulatory poems."

At the end of the competition, the McFarland clinic had won the overall top spot, coming just 0.4 points short of Star Clinic status. The other two clinics took team photos, which will be posted on U-Connect to recognize McFarland's accomplishment.

Johnson remarked that the providers and staff at the clinics were motivated by the competition. "But the overall goal was to have fun and have everyone improve, and we did that."

Future Considerations

The only downside to the competition, Johnson said, was that there was a time lag between Press Ganey survey periods and when results were made available. It took commitment and organizational effort to keep the competition going.

She does, however, see value in doing another competition sometime in the future. Considerations include whether residency and community clinics could participate in the same competition, or whether it would be valuable to have a competition with clinics that traditionally have had similar Press Ganey scores (either high or low).

"Although, the point is, your organizational differences shouldn't really matter," she said. "It's all about how you interact with people."