Healthcare and the delivery of healthcare services is often a matter of life and death and there has been an increased intensity of those in need of medical help and, as a result, a significant increase in the demanding workload on the healthcare workforce.

Patients deserve quality care and healthcare employees deserve on-the-job satisfaction to provide quality care.  Thoughtful considerations must go into how stressful and challenging the work of a healthcare provider is and how it impacts patients with either a negative or positive outcome as it links to public investment in hospital care. To succeed in 2022, healthcare organizations must address this concerning connection to sustain high-quality healthcare readiness and the funding that makes access possible.

According to News: Medical Life Sciences, 2021 studies show that there is a critical link between hospitals’ healthcare compensation, healthcare workers’ well-being, and patient satisfaction surveys. It is impossible to separate this idea from The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS), whose goal is to empower consumers and hold hospitals accountable for improving care by implementing the Medicare payment system that ties patient care experiences with hospital reimbursement rates.  Since 2008, CMS endorses the publishing of the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scoring system that provides qualitative data to rate patient experiences using Value Based Performance Standards (VBP). Specifically, all the dimensions surveyed are consumer-driven factors that contribute to well-being and satisfaction, such as the conditions of the hospital environment (noise level, cleanliness), the social climate (interactions, responsiveness), and information access (discharge, care transition). When any of these factors are receiving unsatisfactory or poor scores, it can negatively affect healthcare employees’ job satisfaction due to significant stressors, thereby affecting customer satisfaction–and hospital funding. Let’s face it, there are billions of dollars from Medicare at stake.

Certainly, the stressors of the still raging pandemic in the healthcare field highlight the need to address and prevent undue burdens on our healthcare professionals as we move into 2022. The real burdens of occupational pressures on the healthcare providers on the front lines translate into their ability to provide quality care experiences.  Patient experiences of care across the nation certainly reflect the caregiver’s burden in the HCAHPS VBP scores so healthcare leaders can utilize this data in practical and useful ways. Healthcare organizations have an obligation to fundamentally do good by their healthcare professionals and consequently increase positive outcomes for patients.

What steps can you take to boost patient satisfaction and secure healthcare funding?

• Ensure adequate funding and allocate funding resourcefully
• Elicit feedback from healthcare professionals to allow for emerging new ideas
• Provide empowerment opportunities to those who feel a lack of control over their work
• Be transparent; share knowledge
• Establish systems or support from senior staff
• Let employees know they are valued
• Create equitable engaging training to keep up to date
• Foster healing and recovery for healthcare providers

• Approach care from an honest, open, empathetic stance
• Encourage healthcare professionals to invest in patients

The satisfaction of the patients is largely dependent upon the healthcare workforce they encounter in adverse situations.

The perceptions of patients are key to acknowledge as it influences healthcare funding as we head into 2022. KFF offers an overview and funding facts on Medicare spending, showing that Medicare was 15% of the total federal spending in 2018 which totaled $605 billion; further, Medicare spending is projected to rise to 18.3% percent from 2019 to 2029, increasing spending to $1.3 trillion in 2029. By enhancing the well-being of healthcare workers, hospitals will be better able to retain and recruit healthcare workers, provide quality care, increase customer satisfaction, and plan to respond to future public health threats.

Here at RBT CPAs, we understand the diverse and complicated world of healthcare. Our team of healthcare experts brings industry expertise in reimbursement, regulatory compliance and audit, accounting, and tax services. We will continue to keep you notified of timely news that matters to you and your team, but if you’d like to connect and receive individualized services, please contact us today. If you would like to submit feedback or topic ideas for future articles our team produces, please feel free to contact us at TLideas@rbtcpas.com.

Sources: News-Medical, News-Medical, CMS, CMS, Relias, AMA, News-Medical, KFF