At their core, hospitals are primarily care centers. They help patients recover from injury and disease. But when patients suffer from diseases and injuries that require a long-term recovery plan - which involves long-term hospital stays - hospitals begin to take on the character of a hotel. When this happens, patients not only become guests, but paying customers whose satisfaction is vital to the hospital.

This all begs a couple questions:

1. Are hospital guests patients or customers?

2. Are hospitals care centers or businesses?

The answer to each question is both, which means that nurses are required to care for guests as if they are both patients and paying customers.

But is doing so bad for patients?

The Problem with Satisfied Patients

As of October 2012, the Affordable Care Act began withholding 1% of all Medicare reimbursements - amounting to about $850 million. This money would only be distributed to hospitals with high patient satisfaction scores, writes The Atlantic.

The problem with this is twofold. First, patient satisfaction (based on HCAHPS scores) is heavily dependent on factors that don't involve the level of care they receive. Some complaints reported in The Atlantic ranged from "My roommate was dying all night and his breathing was very noisy" to "The hospital doesn't have Splenda."

The second problem arises when taking patient health into consideration. One of the top complaints patients have during hospital stays is sleep interruption, something that is often necessary because nurses need to take vitals, distribute medication and perform other tasks that are often vital to patient recovery.

The Pain Problem

There has also been pressure coming down on hospitals from The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to do two things:

1. Cut back on the amount of opioids they are prescribing to patients

2. Simultaneously manage patient's pain

While this is a burdensome task in its own right, the matter is further complicated when Medicare reimbursements are tied to HCAHPS scores. When patients are in pain, they are naturally going to be less satisfied with their treatment, which is why HSS is proposing to eliminate pain-related questions from HCAHPS surveys.

Patient health and satisfaction are two very separate issues, yet they are now lumped together in terms of reimbursement that are necessary for hospitals to profit as a business. 

The question now becomes how nurses can strike a balance between the two.

Balancing Patient Health and Satisfaction

Nurses already play numerous roles in hospital, so it falls on them to ensure both the health and satisfaction of patients. But with labor shortages causing nurses to be short on time, what they really need are the right tools to help. Looking at numerous studies, it's easy to see that custom whiteboards are one of the most helpful solutions. 

When used as communication boards, whiteboards help improve patient awareness, increase patient satisfaction scores and improve patient flow. They help nurses communicate information that is both vital to patient health and satisfaction. From medication schedules to discharge goals and everything in between, nurses can convey any information they want to patients in a clear, concise manner that doesn't take up too much of their valuable time.

When patients feel involved in their care, they not only get better but are more happy during their recovery. It's balance that, when implemented correctly, will improve both patient health and happiness. To learn more about our custom hospital whiteboards, download our healthcare eBook or request a quote from our team.