Patient Satisfaction: Why and How Patients Grade You and Your Pulmonary Practice

Patient satisfaction is an important factor for consideration in pulmonary practice management. Although evidence regarding the correlation of patient satisfaction with care quality remains mixed, there is an increasing national emphasis on the importance of patient experience in physician reimbursement, credentialing, and public opinion. The introduction of the Affordable Care Act and value-based care purchasing has tied a portion of reimbursement to patient experience surveys and other metrics related to care quality rather than quantity. Through nationally recognized assessments such as the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys and easily accessible websites such as RateMD and Yelp, patient opinion of care quality is more widely available and more important to pulmonary practice than ever before. Physician credentialing may also be impacted by the American Board of Internal Medicine's Maintenance of Certification program and potential future requirements for physicians to assess the patient experience to maintain certification. In the continually evolving health-care delivery, credentialing, and reimbursement climate, a thorough understanding of the increasing importance of patient satisfaction as well as strategies for successfully approaching this issue are essential to modern pulmonary inpatient and outpatient practice management.