The Rev. Sue Wintz on asking the right questions

Where Are We with Press Ganey and Other Issues of
Patient Satisfaction?

An issue of concern for professional chaplains is patient satisfaction. As we are being held accountable by our organizations to contribute to the overall satisfaction of patients and families, the question has naturally arisen as to how we as clinical providers can do so.

In late 2003, Press Ganey released a white paper on “Patient Satisfaction with Emotional and Spiritual Care.” They also announced their intention to change their survey question “’Degree to which hospital staff addressed your emotional/spiritual needs” to “Degree to which hospital staff addressed your emotional needs” beginning in early 2004. This move left spiritual issues and the impact of the chaplain omitted from surveys except through the use of custom questions. It also left many chaplains feeling powerless and frustrated, and many contacted the APC office and the Quality Commission for assistance.

We contacted Press Ganey’s Director of Education and Development. Her response, and that of Press Ganey, has been extremely helpful for professional chaplains. At her suggestion, the Quality Committee identified a set of custom questions reported in the March/April 2005 issue of the APC News. They are:

1. Were you made aware by the hospital staff that chaplains are available to address the spiritual and emotional needs of all patients? Yes/No
2. Did you ask to see a hospital chaplain during this stay? Yes/No
3. Did you meet with a hospital chaplain(s) during this stay? Yes/No
4. If you did meet with a hospital chaplain (or chaplains), please rate the quality of the emotional, spiritual or other help that you received from the chaplain(s) during this stay? Very Good/Good/Fair/Poor/Very Poor
5. How likely are you to request a hospital chaplain in further admissions? Likely/Not likely/Not at all likely
6. During this hospitalization, have other people (besides the hospital chaplains) served your religious needs? These people can include non-chaplain hospital staff and religious leaders from outside the hospital. Yes/No

Chaplains still must negotiate with their administrators as to using any or all of the APC-developed questions. Press Ganey does not charge for custom questions to be included in their surveys if they provide the typesetting for the survey itself. If your organization does its own survey typesetting, then that will be another area of discussion with your administrator.

All of the Press Ganey consultants have been provided with education about the APC chaplain-focused questions and are able to assist organizations in adding them to their surveys. If there is any difficulty in this process, the Quality Commission should be contacted, as Press Ganey is committed to this initiative.

Press Ganey also keeps a list of custom questions that they offer to organizations for use. As soon as one client starts using them they are added to the database; as soon as ten clients are using them the questions are added to the list sent out to organizations asking for suggestions of questions to use.

The benefit of using these custom questions is that it provides us, as professional chaplains, with potential benchmarking information that will be shared by Press Ganey with the APC in a collaborative way for mutual analysis and publication.

These conversations with Press Ganey continue to be mutually beneficial. While we have been given the opportunity to proactively impact patient satisfaction surveys with questions specific to the work of chaplaincy, Press Ganey has benefited from learning more about the contributions of professional chaplains, and continues to include us in their work around issues of spirituality. We are deeply grateful for Press Ganey’s willingness and commitment to working with us on these issues.

Because of this success, the APC Quality Commission plans to move forward during 2006 to identify other patient satisfaction groups that can be approached in order to expand the dialogue and inclusion of chaplain-related questions in survey tools.

For more information about Press Ganey and to access their Knowledge Summary on “Patient Satisfaction with Emotional and Spiritual Care” and other articles, visit their website at http://www.pressganey.com.

Do you have thoughts about education & research you’d like to share with your colleagues? Send an e-mail to info@PlainViews.org.