Comparison of patient satisfaction results during a period of rapid growth for a specialty group practice

Orthopaedics Indianapolis is a private specialty group practice that experienced a phase of rapid growth between 1993 and 1996. During this period, the group doubled in size from 18 to 36 physicians without a corresponding increase in support personnel. To maintain the quality of clinical services during and after this rapid expansion, a number of quality improvement efforts were initiated. The 9-item Visit Rating Questionnaire (VRQ) was used four times over this 3-year period to evaluate patients' satisfaction with their visit to our clinic. We found that there was significant improvement during this time in several patient satisfaction constructs, including overall satisfaction, in spite of considerable increase in clinic volume. This paper presents the results of our VRQ surveys and outlines the various methods used to make clinical services more efficient. Having quality improvement efforts lead changes in group practice operations can make a significant impact on satisfaction, even during a period of rapid growth and change.