Viewpoint FROM THE CHIEF MEDICAL EDITOR

Divine Intervention

Larry E. Patterson, M.D.

"Money won't buy happiness, but it will pay the salaries of a large research staff to study the problem."—Bill Vaughan

"Aw, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forty percent of all people know that."—Homer Simpson

It seems logical that if you want to know something, the best way to find out is to go straight to the source. In our practices, if we want to know how our patients think we're doing, we can either ask them directly or use written surveys. Most of the time I've preferred the surveys, simply because many people are uncomfortable saying negative things about us face to face. Yes, I know, there are exceptions — those folks who have no trouble at all pointing out our faults!

The classic survey often consists of a large number of questions about every aspect of the office. Patients are asked to rank how we do in each area from 1 to 10 or some similar system. Very few people actually take the time to fill these out. Perhaps fewer still are the practices that read them or do anything about them. And if my practice averages an "8," what does that really mean?

Recently, I received inspiration for a better survey instrument from a reasonably good source of inspiration in general — church! I was visiting my sister in Dallas, and upon arriving at the church building I was handed a bulletin outlining their service that morning, along with a survey.

This survey was unlike any I had seen before. It had only three questions:

1. What was the first thing you noticed about our church?

2. What was the best part of your experience with us?

3. What was the worst thing you noticed?

And that was it. Refreshingly open and to the point. I realized that these people had come up with a survey model that was both simple and effective. So I thought about it for several weeks, and modified it to try out in our surgery center. My new survey has only three questions:

1. What was the first thing you noticed about our facility?

2. What was the best part of your surgical experience?

3. What was the worst part of your surgical experience?

At the end of the survey, we offer the option to list any comments or suggestions the patient may have to help us improve the quality of care we provide.

It has worked beautifully: patients actually let us know the good, the bad and the ugly about their experience at our center. It gets right to the point. I have much better confidence knowing what we're doing well, but also the areas we need to improve upon. Think of it as divine intervention for the practice.

In a magazine entitled Ophthalmology Management, you should expect little pearls like this from time to time. As always, we welcome your ideas.