The Impact of Employee Satisfaction on Patient Safety and Satisfaction Within the Hospital Setting
I
ntuitively, a hospital’s safety culture ought to be related
waits/delays, poor communication, poor care coordination, lack
nication among staff members and providing patient-
Approximately 40 percent of patients reported at least one inci-
to its service quality. Practices such as open commu-
centered care have an impact on both patient safety and patient satisfaction. This instinctively links patient safety and patient satisfaction to employee satisfaction. For example, nurses who
are satisfied and engaged and can spend sufficient time at the
bedside will presumably know their patients and their vulner-
abilities better and will be more prepared to identify and ward off potential harms.
In today’s healthcare environment, however, rarely are a hos-
pital’s safety culture and poor patient satisfaction caused by apa-
thetic staff and unwilling managers, but rather by a system that fails to support them. Leaders who create a work environment
and culture that are engaging and where people are proud to work, create engaged employees and in turn, satisfied patients.
Empirical connections between patient safety, patient satis-
of respect for personal preferences, or environmental issues. dent, and reporting incidents was associated with diminished patient satisfaction.
In its Health Care Satisfaction Report,
Press Ganey, Inc. stated “empirical evidence leads to the conclusion that increases of employee satisfaction are associated with
increases in patient satisfaction”. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is aware of this empirical research and has developed a value-based purchasing (VBP) measure
set with performance-based financial incentives and public
reporting of quality information to comprehensively evaluate
all aspects of quality, including patient satisfaction and safety. With these changes to Medicare and Medicaid, the two largest
payment systems, employee attitudes and engagement can have a significant financial impact on a hospital’s bottom line.
With this in mind, Oakwood Annapolis Hospital’s surgical
faction and employee engagement appear in greater frequency
services department recently created a staff-driven, manage-
of service “incidents” — deficiencies in service quality such as
within the department to address the challenge of improving
ment-supported team composed of informal employee leaders
Spring 2012
in today’s literature. A recent study examined inpatients’ reports
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