Medicare's quality improvement plan to enhance patient satisfaction and doctor enrollment

Health Care Improvements

The health care industry is one that is much criticized in the United States. Many consumers look at this industry as one big giant industry that is only concerned about profitability, not about the health and safety of its customers. The health care industry must make many changes to change their image and provide better service to its customers. Medicare is a government health care insurance that covers 80% of the medical cost for individuals over the age of 65 years. Medicare currently has a bad reputation with its customers and with doctors. It is important for Medicare to change its reputation and build better relationship with customers and with doctors. By changing their image, Medicare will attract more doctors to become participants and this will be a better service for the customers. In this paper I will address some important steps that Medicare could take to change their image and provide better service to their customers. The paper will discuss the how the improvements will be monitored and what tools are needed to collect and monitor data.

Necessary Changes

Some of the necessary changes to create a better image for the organization and improve customer satisfaction are preventing hospital readmissions, wellness and health promotions, and direct interactions to improve patient outcomes (Phelan & Jones, 2010). Medicare has to allow medical professionals such as doctor and nurses to provide the best care for the patients. Medicare must allow adequate hospital stays for patients to avoid readmissions. Medicare should pay for necessary testing for patients without a long process of getting approvals prior to testing. Doctors should be in control of patients' well-being and physical conditions, not insurance companies. Patients do not want their medical decisions being made by the government; they want those decisions to be made by doctors (GAO Reports, 2001). Recent changes in Medicare polices, will prevent Medicare customers from getting quality necessities such as wheelchairs (PR Newswire, 2010). These policies must be changed.

Provide Better Patient Service

One of the best ways to improve patient service is to provide better customer service. Medicare should provide training to their employees and demand a high level of customer service. Patients and health care professionals should be treated respectfully and given the proper information. Timely approvals of medical procedures and testing's would increase customer satisfaction. Creating better patient service and patient satisfaction will help more doctors to enroll in Medicare participation list. Medicare patients should not be denied brand name drugs or quality products. They should be given the same treatment as any patient with other insurance companies. Patients should be allowed to stay in the hospital for full recovery; this will help prevent injuries and readmissions.

Change Image

Changing the image of Medicare is essential for the organization. The first thing Medicare can do to change their image is to promote wellness and patient health as their number one priority. Medicare can provide more free seminars in local communities addressing healthcare needs. Medicare is a health insurance that deals with the elderly; therefore they should provide healthcare fairs about issues such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and other old age disease. Medicare should also change some of their policies, which will allow doctors more control of patients needs.

Tools to Measure Image Change

One of the most widely used tools for collecting data is surveys and questionnaire (Bebell et. al, 2010). Surveys can be completed in many different ways, in person, online, e-mail, or fax. This is also an inexpensive way to collect data, which allows the data collector to collect from a lager sample size. The surveys will be given to both patients and health care professionals. The questions will be designed to capture information about how the individual feel about the new changes that were made by Medicare.

Data Collection Tools

The focus group and the surveys will gather similar information; they will gather information about customer feelings, and their experiences. One of the biggest strengths of the surveys is that it is inexpensive and you can get a larger sample size, therefore collect more data. A weakness of the focus group is that individuals can be influenced by others in the group. Some individuals may not want to be different and may go along with what others are saying. A major strength of the monitored phone call is that it is actual proof of what happened on the call.

Statistical Tools

SPSS and Excel could be used to collect and analyze data. One of the biggest strengths of excel is that it is user friendly. Most people who can use any of the Microsoft products would be able to quickly adapt to using Excel for collecting and analyzing this type of data. One of the weaknesses of Excel is that it is not capable of computing certain statistical analysis. SPSS is capable of analyzing large scale data and can compute a larger amount of statistical testing. One of the major weaknesses of SPSS is that it is not very user friendly and the researcher must be trained on SPSS to effectively use the software.

Conclusion

There are some necessary changes that Medicare should make. Patients feel as though they are not getting the necessary care and adequate customer service. Medicare has a shortage of participating doctors because of their image. Medicare needs to change their image and provide better service to their customer. Medicare can provide better service by giving the doctors more control to take care of their patients in the necessary way. The organization could change their image by making an effort to provide their customers with information about health programs and healthy lifestyles. These changes can be monitored by using data collection tools like surveys, focus groups and recorded phone conversations. These changes are necessary for the organization and will take time to implement, however monitoring these changes are necessary. The data will be collected using focus groups, surveys and recorded calls and the analysis of data will be done with Excel and SPSS.