Tenet Nurse

Inpatient Satisfaction/HCAHPS

Patient satisfaction is receiving greater attention due to pay-for-performance (P4P) measures and the public release of data from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. Tenet has conducted patient satisfaction studies for many years. In 1981, Tenet began working with Field Research, a national research firm specializing in patient satisfaction research. Patients are surveyed about their recent care in the hospital. A telephonic survey is conducted approximately two weeks after the discharge. On a monthly basis hospitals are scored using a “five star” scoring system where receiving a five-star rating is considered excellent. While the patient satisfaction survey addresses a range of issues, the measures highlighted below we considered key indicators of satisfaction with nursing care:

Measure Percent Satisfied with Nursing Care

Physician Satisfaction

Physicians also give Tenet hospitals high marks for the quality of care that is provided and the communication and collaboration that occurs between medicine and nursing. In 2008 our physician satisfaction survey showed a 6.2% increased in the physicians’ satisfaction with our nursing staff. In 2009 we saw an additional 1.7 percent increase with physician satisfaction with nursing care. The relationships that are built between physician and nurse make a difference in the way care is delivered to patients. Physicians look for consistency in our nurses so they can become comfortable with nurses’ skill sets and abilities.

Nursing Satisfaction

Positive relationships are key to an engaged workforce and the same is true for professional nursing staff working in our hospitals. While we currently use an all employee satisfaction survey to collect satisfaction ratings, we intend to move to a nurse engagement survey in 2010 so as to better measure the satisfaction of nurses in their work environments.

Click here to view a PDF of the 2009 Patient Care Services Annual Report