Health Systems

 

A Physician's Call to Action: Delivering a Superior Care Experience.

Jill M. Steinbruegge, MD; Robert H. Sachs, PhD; Douglas Bonacum, MBA; Martin N. Gilbert, MD; Lisa B. Koltun, MS, HSA

This review of the impact of service quality on the overall value of the health care experience will be of interest to all Medical Groups seeking to enhance the service that they provide. The article puts to rest any doubt that patient satisfaction does significantly influence health outcomes, overall organizational costs, and clinician satisfaction.
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Using Information from Linkage Research Studies to Improve Organizational Performance.

Sherilyn M. Kam, PhD; Fran Sincere, MSIR

This is a follow-up article to the preliminary research published last year in The Permanente Journal. The authors describe in this article how the leaders of Kaiser Permanente will use the information that links the customers' opinion with employees' opinion.
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Will Drop-In Group Medical Appointments (DIGMAs) Work In Practice?

Edward B. Noffsinger, PhD

This innovative program has been received with excitement throughout the country. It is a classic "work smarter" approach in that it challenges the traditional mindset that the only product to offer patients is one-on-one interaction with physicians in an exam room. Dr. Noffsinger's Drop-in Group Medical Appointments address the care experience from a quality, service, and efficiency viewpoint with a model that can potentially work with any physician practice.
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The Easy Access Program: A Way to Reduce Patient No-Show Rate, Decrease Add-Ons to Primary Care Schedules, and Improve Patient Satisfaction.

Philip J. Tuso, MD, FACP; Ken Murtishaw, RN, MA, DHE; Wadie Tadros, MD

An innovation is presented that underscores the fact that service excellence can be achieved only if demand-capacity is well understood and is supported by a sound scheduling system. Although this may be one of several methods of dealing with scheduling changes to improve access, the principles of the article probably apply to all such initiatives.
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Improving the Quality of Service: The KPNW Experiment.

Wendy Ray, MPH

Here is a very interesting article describing how the Northwest region is using a "Customer Service Collaborative" to create a service-oriented culture. The program is based on the Institute of Healhtcare Improvements 1998 National Collaborative "Improving Service in Health Care."
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Getting the Most out of the Clinical Encounter: The Four Habits Model.

Richard M. Frankel, PhD; Terry Stein, MD

How could this edition focus on service without addressing the crucial component of the care experience--the clinician's interaction with the patient? Building on the Four Habits Model that these authors have made famous, this article presents stimulating ideas to assist physicians and other care providers as they seek to refine their patient communication skills.
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