Posted on Aug. 25, 2008

Using satisfaction surveys to solicit, analyze and integrate staff feedback can help health care organizations ensure the development of effective strategic plans for transcription services. Involving end users provides important insights that decision makers need to avoid false assumptions when planning changes to this critical service. Employing post-implementation satisfaction surveys is an effective tool for measuring whether goals were achieved.

A crucial, but often overlooked aspect of successful strategic plans (and many tactical projects) is the input of key stakeholders. As the primary users of a hospital's internal services, processes and systems, understanding their perceptions and concerns is essential to implementing effective change. Health care facilities are a maze of highly integrated, complex processes. By involving stakeholders, decision makers take an important step toward repairing broken processes and implementing viable and sustainable solutions. The success or failure of changes within an organization often impacts the satisfaction level and productivity of employees. This in turn impacts the success or failure of strategic efforts and ultimately, the delivery of patient care.

It is both an art and a science to collect the right data and analyze it accurately. Anyone who has not taken a statistics or research class in the past year might consider reviewing some of the many excellent resources available. This should include a quick study of the software tools available for the type of study being conducted. For many organizations, word processing, database and spreadsheet programs already on their PCs are robust enough to make fairly sophisticated data collection and statistical analysis possible.

Satisfaction surveys allow decision makers to standardize the information collected and provide staff with a constructive way to voice concerns. A well-crafted survey elicits information that focuses leaders' efforts and challenges their assumptions. Careful, unbiased analysis and follow-up interviews are crucial. Analysis may uncover a trend, but only structured interviews can provide the necessary context to fully understand the information collected. A successful strategy cannot be built on mistaken assumptions or flawed understanding.

Methodology
Developing the survey tool is the first step. The survey questions should be focused on key indicators of the process or service. Quality, turnaround time and use of technology would be the key measures for transcription. To perform objective analysis, the survey responses should be measured using a quantitative rating scale. The Likert Scale is the gold standard and may be employed using a five or six point scale. To help ensure respondents commit to either a positive or negative response, consider using the six point scale thereby eliminating neutral or ambivalent answers. For example: 

1 = Extremely satisfied

2 = Very satisfied

3 = Somewhat satisfied

4 = Somewhat dissatisfied

5 = Very dissatisfied

6 = Extremely dissatisfied

Assigning numeric values to the responses makes quantitative analysis possible. Decision makers may find that some of the questions are more important to their study than others. In that instance, consider weighting those questions by adding points to the responses. This is known as factor loading. If quality and turnaround time are the most important measures, the point value of responses would be higher, or factor loaded, on those two variables. To arrive at a final score, response percentages are calculated. Then each percentage is multiplied by the rating number. Finally, the amounts are totaled and divided by the percentage of blanks, or non-responses for that question. The resulting figure is the Likert score for that question. (See Figure 1)

In the example above, the lower the Likert score, the more strongly respondents agreed with the statement. The higher the score, the more strongly respondents disagreed with the statement. In this example respondents strongly disagreed with completely outsourcing the transcription service to a vendor.

Testing the survey tool prior to distribution is a vital component. Select a few stakeholders familiar with the process and have them complete the survey and comment on the tool. Did they interpret the questions or statements consistently and as intended?  Did the tool address the most important aspects of the service? This exercise serves to validate the integrity of the survey tool and helps ensure the right areas are being studied. Use the findings from the focus group to refine the questions or statements and validate the delivery and analytical methods being used.