* Please note, the affect of the responses may have been different if opinions regarding the tool were requested in the Listserv query.
Anna
Roman
Reply
U Pittsburgh
We have been using Press Ganey for over 5 years. Mixed review. Happy to speak with him.
Penn State
Penn State Hershey Medical Center does.
Robert
Baker
Vince
Verdile
Albany
Medical
Jim Patyraj West
Virginia U
Pug Burge U New
Mexico
U
Tennessee
We used it for a number of years. The information is useful, although depending on how the questionnaire is crafted, it can lack sufficient specificity for the physician practices. They are a reputable organization and will work with you to customize reports.
I used Press Ganey for several years at my last institution and eventually discontinued their services. They have good data, but it is very expensive, tends to be out of date, and is too statistical. I didn't find value in their reports because they were too detailed to understand, and my physicians wouldn't spend that much time reviewing them. Eventually, I developed a method to abstract their data into bite size information that my physicians could readily understand. While this worked for a while, it added more work onto my staff, work that I thought I was already paying for in the initial contract.
Please take my comments in the proper reference. I would not recommend Press
Ganey for a physician practice group, but might consider them for a hospital program where Administration might appreciate the various detailed Press Ganey reports, and be able to digest and use the information. As well as pay the price of admission.
We are using it at the University of New Mexico School of medicine. Our hospital is the one who manages this. If you want more info, I can put you in touch with someone who is closer to it.
We have been using the Press Ganey survey for patient satisfaction about physicians for about a year. There are quite a few practices in the country who use the same basic questionnaire with some fine-tuning in their markets. Press Ganey has a good reputation.
To date, we have been satisfied with it generally, although the mailing and handling expense is the main problem, some of which can be blamed on the cost of

Douglas
Henson
Jackie
Einstein
Astrof
Mary Hu
U
Pennsylvania
Cornell U
Yale U postage, which is beyond Press Ganey’s control. Press Ganey has been going through some systems changes to improve their reporting in the last year as well which will pay off in the long run but made some of the report viewing a little difficult for a short while.
We do not use a physician satisfaction survey (i.e., interviews of referring physicians) through Press Ganey. Some sponsors of the Physicians Practice magazine have been shrink-wrapping physician satisfaction and survey forms to physicians with the magazine.
The US Government is also considering a patient satisfaction survey system currently being developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
(CMS) and the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality (AHRQ). The
CMS/AHRQ draft survey instrument will undergo testing and revision at least until the end of August 2003 with the first pilot test states being Arizona, Maryland and
New York. There is a message on the Press Ganey website from Dr. Mel Hall,
CEO about this under “Top Story” http://www.pressganey.com/ .
We use the Press Ganey survey tool for our hospitals, but not their physician satisfaction tool. Instead, we use a much simpler homegrown survey for our outpatient satisfaction surveys.
Our Surgery Dept did a homegrown physician survey about two years. I also know that Yale has done some physician surveying but has not used Press Ganey to my knowledge.
The Yale Medical Group implemented the Press Ganey medical office survey in over 50 clinical practice sites a year and a half ago. I would be happy to discuss our survey efforts and can be reached at 203-737-4218.
MCG (MCG Health, Inc. and Physicians Practice Group) are in process of using this instrument. It is a new tool so there is no data yet as far as we know.
Curt
Steinhart
MC of
Georgia
David Posch Vanderbilt
Marc
Dettmann
Mark Bittle
U Virginia
Johns
Hopkins
We have designed and administer our own tool. We have concluded we can get statistically valid data, which is useful at the individual MD level at a much cheaper rate than through a firm. We used to use NRC. We also concluded having data about how we stacked against other institutions on this survey was not useful and redundant to market preference surveys we also run which compares multiple institutions.
The UVA Medical Center has been using Press Ganey for satisfaction survey work, including ambulatory. Contact there is Trish Cluff, whose email is plc2n@virginia.edu.
Johns Hopkins uses Press Ganey for patient satisfaction for inpatient and outpatient. Under outpatient, hospital outpatient and clinical practices are separately identified. There are not specific questions regarding physicians beyond general questions related to "care provider." We have used this for 4 years and have found the data useful in monitoring progress in selected areas of focus.
I am not aware of a "Physician Satisfaction" tool.
Ellen Cohen Stony Brook Our affiliated hospital, Stony Brook University Hospital, has utilized the Press
Ganey Patient Satisfaction products for several years, including the physician survey. Our practices have access to this information (in summary form only) on a quarterly basis, through an internal website. The hospital has recently begun sending out to the Departments individual survey responses received. In addition, the practice plan's practice development committee regularly reviews these results and distributes it's own comparative graph of quarterly patient satisfaction results
(from Press Ganey surveys), reflecting the relative performance of the clinical

Kathy
Jinkins
James
Legault
Annonymous
U Texas
Galveston
SUNY
Upstate practices against each other.
For more information, please have the appropriate person contact Andrew Toga,
Director of Practice Development, CPMP, at 631-444-9830 or by e-mail at
Andrew.Toga@stonybrook.edu.
University of Texas Medical Branch is currently participating in the Press Ganey
Physician Satisfaction Survey as a beta test site. Press Ganey has made it very easy to coordinate the activities with excellent communication back and forth. We have not yet received the final report as the surveys are still being completed.
Prior to commencing the survey, have some well-defined means of encouragement for the faculty to complete the survey. That has required the most time--getting them to complete.
Please feel free to contact me further if you have other questions.
We are participating with a pilot study (a joint venture between UHC and Press
Ganey) to measure MD satisfaction using Press Ganey. There are about a dozen hospitals that are using this test survey. We are still in the midst of the pilot study.
We are surveying only attending MD's. Please let me know if you would like to discuss this survey further.
We have contracted with Press Ganey for the Physician Satisfaction Tool (about one year ago). If we knew then what we know now, we most likely would have gone with another company. It has been difficult (this could be an understatement), and we still do not have accurate data. I would be glad to share our experience with him.
This member would prefer to remain anonymous to the entire group. The inquiring party can contact Jared Abramson at the AAMC (jabramsonAaamc.org
202/828-0622) for this member’s contact information.