January 27, 2010 -- Hospital Impact has been ranked one of the top 50 healthcare blogs by Wikio.
Join our online community!
Latest Posts
Hospital Leadership Series
Hot Topics
Is that a patient in room 2 or is she an undercover mystery shopper? This past year, the California Healthcare Foundation hired 622 people to pose as poor uninsured patients to determine hospitals' progress in disclosing costs and access to financial assistance. The results were not so good: "Only 7.3 percent of the fictitious patients who visited a hospital in person were offered information about financial assistance policies or charity care eligibility."
Mystery shoppers in hospitals are not a new phenomenon. One firm, Mystery-shoppers, cited a 1999 example of a hospital director of surgical services who wanted to know more about how her patients perceived the care they were receiving. For $50-100/individual "patient" visit, the information was invaluable. Devon Hill Associates, offering their "secret patient services," were cited in the New York Times way back in 1997. They were also recently featured in the Pittsburgh Gazette:
"Surveys or other tools that measure patient satisfaction may give hospital administrators an idea of problem areas. But mystery shopping can further pinpoint the cause" - Barbara Gerber, President of Devon Hill Associates
Gerber is cited here in 1998. In one particular case, she charged a hospital roughly $6,000 for her services. According to a Healthleaders article, another firm, Perception Strategies, has done roughly 25,000 "shops" for hospitals and physicians' offices. Prices start at $2,500, and can go up to $100,000 (which can include greater #s of visits, quarterly testing & year-end executive summary). Many of the hospitals did make concrete changes: hiring of bilingual staff at the front desk, writing thank you notes to patients, better sales support, better lighting in hallways, etc.

Mystery shopping as a whole is a growing $600MM industry. It's only a matter of time that hospitals, more conscious of care perceptions, would join the fray.
We can plan and think. We can conduct focus groups. But sometimes, there's nothing like sending out some trained spies to experience our services first-hand. Does your hospital employ mystery shoppers?
Safety TipHospital facilities built today do not include asbestos, but many older buildings still have asbestos components in them. Steam pipes, boilers and furnace ducts were often insulated with an asbestos blanket or asbestos paper tape because of their fireproof and insulating properties. Resilient floor tiles were made from vinyl asbestos. Asbestos cement was employed in roofing, shingles and siding materials. The hazard of this carcinogen increases when the fibers become airborne, and untrained contractors can inadvertently increase risks by cutting, tearing, sawing, scraping, or sanding asbestos materials. Elevated asbestos levels can occur in hospitals where old materials are damaged or disturbed. It is best to leave undamaged asbestos material alone if it is not likely to be disturbed. Inhaling asbestos fibers is known to cause mesothelioma and other diseases. Be sure to use an experienced asbestos removal contractor when you need to get rid of old materials that might contain asbestos. |