Becker's Hospital Review

49 FINANCE CMO / CARE DELIVERY The problem with patient surveys By Megan Knowles P atient satisfaction is an important part of hospital operations, but hospital leaders should consider the nuances of measuring patient experience before acting on survey results, according to a blog post on the AMA Wire. ree concerns about patient experience surveys for physicians, hospital administrators and policymakers to consider: 1. Patients may get unneeded treatments. Physicians frequently spend less time than they would like with their patients and may feel pressure to hasten the choice and explanation of treatments. If physicians face low patient satisfaction scores, they may approve requests for low-value or unneeded treatments to fulfill patients' wants. 2. High survey scores may increase disparities. Safety-net hospitals oen score lower on patient satisfaction than hospitals giving less care to underserved populations, meaning one-size-fits-all financial incentives for experience scores could lead to larger disparities in care and satisfaction. Concerns over penalties for low satisfaction scores may also make physicians avoid caring for poorer patients and patients with mental illness. 3. Responses may be suspect. Patients' expectations and perceptions of care may not accurately reflect care quality measures. Additionally, voluntary surveys are oen long and may not be completed immediately aer patients received care, producing selection and recall biases in patients with experiences at the extremes. n 49% of nurses have considered leaving the profession since 2016, study finds By Kelly Gooch N urses continue to consider leaving their profession amid complaints of burnout, overwork and harassment, according to a 2018 study by RNnet- work, a travel nurse staffing agency. The study surveyed more than 900 U.S. nurses about issues such as work-life balance and their mental health. Here are six findings: 1. Fifty-four percent of respondents reported their workload has negatively af- fected their mental health, and 35 percent said their mental health had nega- tively affected their work. 2. Eighty percent of respondents said they believe there is a nursing shortage in their facility, and 76 percent said the shortage has personally affected them in the two years prior to the survey. Eighty-eight percent of respondents said the nursing shortage has affected their workload. 3. Sixty-two percent of respondents reported feeling regularly burned out at work, and 43 percent said burnout has affected their work performance. 4. Thirty-nine percent of respondents reported verbal harassment or bullying in their workplace. Thirty percent said they feel verbally harassed or bullied by other nurses. 5. Seventy-nine percent of respondents said they have never experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, and 21 percent said they have. 6. Forty-nine percent of respondents said they considered leaving nursing since 2016. n Nurses seldom disciplined for sexual misconduct, study finds By Mackenzie Bean F ewer than 900 nurses were reported to the National Prac- titioner Data Bank for sexual misconduct from 2003-16, accord- ing to a study published in Public Health Nursing. For the study, researchers from the nonprofit consumer advocacy or- ganization Public Citizen examined reports of adverse state nursing board licensure actions and mal- practice payment filed with the NPDB between 2003 and 2016 for all nurses. Here are four study findings: 1. In total, 882 registered and li- censed practical or vocational nurses were reported to the NPDB during the study period. State nursing boards reported 866 of these cases. 2. About 91 percent of reports in- volved serious consequences, such as revocation, suspension or volun- tary surrender of a nursing license. 3. Male nurses make up only 10 percent of the U.S. nursing popu- lation but accounted for 63 per- cent of all nurses reported for sexual misconduct. 4. Sixteen of 33 nurses who en- gaged in sexual misconduct with patients that led to NPDB malprac- tice payment reports were not disci- plined by state nursing boards. "Our findings, along with other published evidence, suggest that many nurses in the U.S. who exploit their patients are not being held to account," lead study author Azza AbuDagga, PhD, health services re- searcher for Public Citizen's Health Research Group, said in a press release. "When just a few of the country's nurses are flagged for this exploitive behavior, something is clearly wrong." n

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