Patient Survey

Sometimes you don't know if you wanna laugh, or cry.

Our clinic received our patient satisfaction survey results today, this was a survey conducted by an independent 3rd party, contracted by the hospital for probably a generous sum of money, to do these surveys. Physician bonuses are tied in to how satisfied a patient is. This seems to be the norm these days in the USA.

One comment an anonymous patient put nicely sums it up:

"Dr. X (one of my highly respected partners) knows nothing about Hashimoto's! Doesn't she know when you are taking Armour Thyroid, the goal is to get the TSH as close to 0 as possible?".

And that is why basing physician performance on patient satisfaction is a flawed metric.

I've read of urgent care or ER doctors sending most patients home with a goody bag to keep them happy: either antibiotics, or opiates, or both. And often topped with a serving of work excuse for a few days, and having put them through unnecessary testing.