‘Patient Experience’ Trend May Favor Urgent Care

Healthcare payment reform may be giving urgent care a leg up on the local emergency room, according to a new white paper from Press Ganey. While positive “patient experience” scores enable hospitals to collect greater reimbursement, tight margins require sharper focus on clinical care than ever before. In addition, pressure to keep household expenses down is pushing many patients (ie, customers) to consider their options more carefully, especially for lower-acuity complaints like those tailor-made for an urgent care visit. Press Gainey notes that emphasis on “an engaged, patient-centered culture that reduces stress for caregivers and suffering for patients;” maintaining a solid relationship between employee engagement and central patient experience metrics; and focusing on sustained organizational improvement seems to be the winning combination for reaching goals for safety, quality, and service.