Good Doctor-Patient Experiences = Good Health Outcomes: Learn More about Your Doctor

New! Patients ratings and reports on their experience of care with their doctors?more than 700 adult primary care doctors in the Greater Kansas City Area.

Click here to find out what patients say about Kansas City Area doctors

What is the patient experience?

The patient experience refers to all that happens to a patient from the moment he or she walks into a doctor’s office until the end of the appointment. It also includes all phone calls or other contact a patient has with the doctor’s office before or after appointments.

The surveys gauged opinions about primary-care doctors who care for adults family practitioners, internists, geriatricians and general practitioners. Surveys focused on:

• How well doctors communicate with patients. This includes whether doctors listen to patients and give clear directions or explanations.

• How well doctors know their patients. This includes knowing about a patient’s medical history as well as beliefs or values about health and illness.

• If patients get timely appointments, care, and information. An example is giving patients test results very soon after the doctor learns this information.

• If the doctor’s office staff is polite and helpful.

The results will help local consumers make informed choices about their physicians, and will help doctors learn how well they are interacting with their patients and how they can improve.

Background:

Between November 2008 and January 2009, over 40,000 adult patients responded to a survey about their experiences with primary care during the preceding year. The survey asked patients about aspects of their health care experience that are closely linked to quality, the strength of the doctor-patient relationship and access to care.

Consumers CHECKBOOK/Center for the Study of Services conducted the survey with the assistance of KCQIC, the Metropolitan Medical Society of Greater Kansas City, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, Aetna, UnitedHealthcare and other organizations seeking to improve health care quality in greater Kansas City. The questions were developed by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and endorsed by the National Quality Forum.

Kansas City is one of three metropolitan areas participating in the Consumers  CHECKBOOK pilot survey project; the other two are Memphis and Denver. (Kansas City and Memphis are Aligning Forces for Quality Alliances). CHECKBOOK plans to move to other cities shortly.

Physicians interested in increasing patient experience scores contact KCQIC at 816-453-4424

Getting Information About the Quality of Care in Hospitals

You want to get the very best care when you or a loved one must go to a hospital. To help you make good decisions about where to go for quality care, the Kansas City Quality Improvement Consortium has downloaded federal government data on the type of care hospitals provide. Based on already publicly available data, consumers can access our reformatted data. You can find out how well hospitals care for patients with certain conditions. You can also compare hospitals.

Click here to find reports on Kansas City hospitals.

You will find information such as:

How often a hospital gives the right treatments for certain conditions—like heart attacks, heart failure, and pneumonia—or procedures—like preventing surgical infections.

The results of care or treatment for certain conditions or procedures.

What hospital patients said about the care they received during a recent hospital stay. Their experiences are an important part of good quality care.
To access national data, visit www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.

ALIGNING FORCES FOR QUALITY (AF4Q)

Quality health care.  It’s a local issue.  It’s a national issue.  It’s everyone’s issue

The premise of Aligning Forces is that no single person, group or profession can improve health and health care throughout a community without support of others.   AF4Q’s fundamental objectives that Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and others believe will lead to better care. For example, we believe that measuring and reporting on health care, if done right, can:

• help providers improve their own ability to deliver quality care (Quality Improvement)

• help patients and consumers understand their vital role in recognizing and demanding high-quality care (Consumer Engagement)

In 15 communities throughout the country, Aligning Forces for Quality seeks to lift the quality of health and health care by teaming up with those who get care, give care and pay for care.   Explore what our communities are doing to improve health care quality.

• Albuquerque, N.M.
• Cincinnati, Ohio
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Detroit, Mich.
• Humboldt County, Calif.
• Kansas City, Mo.
• Maine
• Memphis, Tenn.
• Minnesota
• Puget Sound, Wash.
• South Central Pennsylvania
• West Michigan
• Western New York
• Willamette Valley, Ore.
• Wisconsin