Rethinking Satisfaction Surveys: Time to Next Complaint

Whereas complaint data represent only the very dissatisfied patients, satisfaction surveys report the average of satisfied and dissatisfied patients. As a consequence, complaint data allow health care managers to hear the voice of their customers without the distortions caused by including other, more satisfied patients. The cost advantage of time to complaint is obvious. The most expensive component of conducting satisfaction surveys is the data collection. In contrast, most hospitals and many other organizations maintain a system for collecting patient complaints for legal and risk management reasons. Much more can be revealed about a unit's operations when both the complaint and the satisfaction rates are calculated.