Several USF Health staff members rose to the top of patient satisfaction surveys, earning scores that helped define the level of care and service they provide to the patients of the USF Physicians Group.
Their efforts also earned them the inaugural awards of the Press Ganey Employee Recognition Program, an effort to recognize those with top scores in each quarterly report. These first winners represent top ratings earners for the first quarter of 2016, with winners from the second set to be named soon.
“We’ve created a robust employee recognition program that is meant to showcase the top performers at USF Health,” said Maria Garces, MT (ASCP), MBA, director of operational efficiency for USFPG. “And we are excited to present these first quarter awards and our second quarter winners are being identified and will be notified very soon.”
The award program is meant to recognize those who excelled in providing USFPG patients with exceptional care and service. The first round of reports for Press Ganey patient satisfaction surveys produced several winners, which were placed within three categories: provider, based on his/her Overall Doctor Rating; office staff within a specialty or division; and nurses/medical assistants within a specialty or division. Future quarters will recognize a fourth category for ARNPs and physician assistants.
The inaugural winners are:
- Provider: Robin Moran, PA, in the Department of Dermatology, with a score of 98.5%
- Office Staff: Neurosurgery at the South Tampa Center, with a score of 98.6%. Winners include Debra Beverly, Yvette Cartagena, Merly Lopez, Debbie Malott, Karlos Martinez, Sharon Matz, Terrie Messier, Jackie Sanchez, Lucas Smailes, Lina Stover, Sandy Tomes, and Irma Velic.
- Nursing/MA: Cardiology at Florida Cardiology Institute in South Tampa, with a score of 96.3%. Winners include Ada Kahrim, Rafael Seda-Perez, Edgar Echavarria, Kenisha Moody, Mary Ann Joy, and Monica Michalski.
Dermatology’s Robin Moran, PA, won the Provider award with a score of 98.5%. Photo by Katy Hennig.
The Neurosurgery team at South Tampa Center won the Office Staff award with a score of 98.6%. Photo by Eric Younghans.
The team in Cardiology at Florida Cardiology Institute in South Tampa won the Nursing/MA award, with Maria Garces (second from left, front row) and Phil Cox (far right) with a score of 96.3%. Photo by Eric Younghans.
The providers are honored with a crystal bull, a rotating award they can proudly display for about three months before the next winner is named, similar to the Stanley Cup for the National Hockey League.
The winning office staff and nursing/MA teams are able to choose among several award options, including a pizza lunch with colleagues, ice cream party, a catered “Breakfast from the Boss,” a cake party, and a patient comment plaque.
Patient surveys are provided through Press Ganey and is designed to encompass the entire patient experience, from the moment they walk in the door until the moment they leave. For USFPG providers, the survey helps them understand what patients expect. Feedback, both complimentary and critical, helps USFPG providers know where they stand, giving them a baseline for implementing improvements. The information collected is used to define and design improvement strategies that improve patient care and build stronger patient safety initiatives, as well as provide benchmarking opportunities with other large academic physician practices
This standardized survey offers patients two modes of questions. One set is the Clinician and Group Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CGCAHPS) questions that include the overall provider rating from 0 to 10, the quality of the provider communications, the quality of the office staff, ease of access to appointments and care at our facilities, and the coordination of their care.
The second set are questions USFPG asked Press Ganey to include that are more specific to its practice, with more in-depth questions on communication, access, courtesy, timing (both with getting appointments and with moving through their appointment at our clinics), understanding of their treatment, and their likelihood of recommending USFPG to others.