The ‘Press Ganey standard’ is set in South Bend

Improving health care and the overall “patient experience” is a daunting task.

But Press Ganey Associates in South Bend helps health care organizations take on that task, by providing satisfaction surveys and improvement services to help clients assess and improve the quality of health care they deliver.

Rick Siegrist, CEO of Press Ganey Associates

Press Ganey is the first, largest and most-trusted name in health care satisfaction measurement. It currently works with more than 10,000 health care facilities, more than 40 percent of U.S. hospitals, to measure and improve the quality of care. The company employs over 750 people and continues to grow.

Its menus of services include reliable patient satisfaction measurement tools, the largest comparative database in the industry, and solutions and guidance to improve the quality of patient care and service.

The company also provides its clients opportunities to connect with health care peers and access a massive collection of best practices. It has a first-class consulting team that offers solutions, guidance and knowledge in performance measurement and improvement. Other services offered include help in focusing employees and resources on common goals and keeping organizations up to date on the latest trends. Press Ganey also offers custom surveys and one-on-one consulting.

Richard Siegrist is CEO of Press Ganey Associates. He was previously president and CEO, and founder, of PatientFlow Technology Inc., a division of Press Ganey which provides strategic solutions for patient-flow issues, such as emergency-room overcrowding, long wait times, bumped or delayed surgeries, and lack of available intensive care units and hospital beds. He remains a faculty member at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Prior to Patient Flow Technology, Inc., Siegrist was senior vice president and general manager of WebMD Quality Services, a division of WebMD, the highly popular and authoritative health information web site used by millions.

“As we look to the future at what is coming with the new health care laws and the focus on value-based purchasing – which places even more emphasis on patient satisfaction and quality, along with the transparency of patient-centered care, we are very well-positioned to take advantage of this need for our services and continue to grow as an organization,” Siegrist says. “We are introducing a number of new things to help propel that growth.”

In the immediate future, two important areas of innovation in patient satisfaction measurement at Press Ganey are:

• The hospitalist survey

About half of the hospitals in the U.S. have “hospitalists,” who provide care while the patient is in the hospital – as opposed to a primary care physician. The hospitalist survey will provide data to determine the hospitalists’ impact on patient satisfaction and opportunities for improvement.

• The continuum of care

A new measurement tool overcomes the tendency to look at things in isolation, such as separating the inpatient experience from the outpatient experience. Satisfaction measurement linking the patient experience across the continuum helps institutions understand patient satisfaction and engagement on a broader scale.

Continuing the expansion in South Bend

The majority of Press Ganey’s employees are located in South Bend, which provides a great talent pool to draw from, according to company officials. Press Ganey recently brought its call center in-house after it previously had been outsourced outside the area. The company attracted local talent in South Bend and significantly improved results.

“This process has really shown the quality of the work force in South Bend,” Siegrist says. “People in South Bend understand health care, which creates a very good environment for hiring. There is a community awareness of the importance of health care and wellness.”

Coming up on the company’s 25th anniversary in August 2010, Siegrist looks back to the two University of Notre Dame professors, Irwin Press, Ph.D., and Rodney F. Ganey, Ph.D., who sparked the idea for the patient-satisfaction industry.

“When you look at Professors Press and Ganey, they were true visionaries,” Siegrist says. “Their vision has now become reality. Now, all hospitals across the country, and a number of medical practices, are measuring satisfaction and placing a very strong emphasis on the patient experience. They were professors at Notre Dame, and I don’t think they realized where it was going to go. But I’ve just got to give them all the credit in the world for coming up with what is a true entrepreneurial idea and for helping it grow into what it is today.”