Frequently Asked Questions and Online Technical SupportGeneral
The CG Patient Satisfation Survey
The CG Patient Satisfation Printed Surveys and Printing
The CG Patient Satisfation Survey Results and Reports
Survey-Specific and Design Questions
GeneralThe CG Patient Satisfation Survey can be used with any computer that has an internet connection, including PCs and Macs. The CG Patient Satisfation Survey account holders can access their account from any computer connected to the internet, as long as they have their user ID and password. There are several basic considerations regarding use of The CG Patient Satisfation Survey in a practice.
For individual accounts, name, address, contact information, email address, and a creCG card are required to sign-up. The demographic information is collected one time for each physician. The CG Patient Satisfation Survey automatically assigns a USER ID and PASSWORD for the provider, and emails it to them. The individual may then go to The CG Patient Satisfation Survey website, "Log-on," and begin sending surveys. For organizational accounts, the person designated as The CG Patient Satisfation Survey administrator organization would sign-up all physicians in the organization by entering their names and email addresses. The CG Patient Satisfation Survey administrator is automatically assigned a master account, giving them access to the control panel for sending surveys by email on behalf of all physicians in the organization. The master account allows The CG Patient Satisfation Survey administrator to view each physician's results, compare physician to physician, physician to specialty summaries, and specialty to specialty. By electronically executing
the “Business Associate Agreement, and The CG Patient Satisfation Survey Terms and Conditions”
when signing up for a CG Patient Satisfation Survey account, the individual or organization
establishes CG, LLC as a legal Business Associate, allowing CG to collect,
store, and provide data regarding the individual’s or organization’s
patients. It is important to note that The CG Patient Satisfation Survey does not, nor is intended, to collect any patient-specific health information. No patient-specific identifiers are publicly available in The CG Patient Satisfation Survey system. All information regarding The CG Patient Satisfation Survey accounts, users, and patient email addresses is stored on secure servers. The CG Patient Satisfation Survey
CG suggests that collecting a patient's email address be as routine as for the patient's insurance card. Almost 80% of patients with email would appreciate being able to contact their physician by email. For physicians or organizations that do not want to use The CG Patient Satisfation Survey email system, the paper-based CG Patient Satisfation Survey system is an option.
CG recommends practices set-up a computer terminal in the waiting room of the office. Emails can be sent to the patient's email address or a generic email address on the computer in the waiting room. The patient can then be sent to the computer and respond to the survey.
Email is not the only method of providing The CG Patient Satisfation Survey to patients. After logging on, the survey can be printed from The CG Patient Satisfation Survey website, each survey having the physician's unique identifier printed on it. The survey prints on a standard 8.5 x11 inch page, has pre-paid postage, and does not require an envelope to mail. We do not charge based on the number of surveys printed (or sent to you). Rather we charge only for surveys actually mailed back and entered--resulting in reduced cost to you. The printed survey is simply handed to the patient upon signing out. It is completed with pen or pencil, folded, taped or stapled, and dropped in a mailbox. CG does the rest! See #3 above. CG believes it is especially important to survey this population, as indigent and migrant populations tend to have the low satisfaction with healthcare. Our survey is written for individuals of low literacy, and is available in multiple languages. Handing surveys that read at higher-grade levels to populations of low literacy virtually guarantees low response rates. CG is very sensitive to this issue. The CG Patient Satisfation Survey and PrintingEach printed survey is a vector graphic image of the actual survey. Graphic images are quite large in size. Each of the printed surveys range in size between 190-300 KB. Because of this, depending upon the internet connection speed of the system, loading the "print" page could take up to several minutes or more, especially if using a dial-up modem. The printed survey page is designed to print on a single 8.5" x 11" piece of paper, without having to change the default "Page setup" setting of your web browser. If the right or left side margin is cut-off, try re-setting the margins in the "Page setup" of your browser. Do this by opening the browser and use your mouse to select "File" on the menu at the top of the open browser. Then select "Page setup" with the mouse. Change the right and left margin settings to 0.25 inches. Click "OK" and the page should print with all margins being visible. The time it takes to print a copy of The CG Patient Satisfation Survey is dependent upon your computer, the printer, and the memory of both the computer and printer. If the memory is relatively small, it can take several minutes before the printer actually begins to print. In this case, simply be patient.
CG charges the physician or organization only for paper surveys that are returned to CG and entered into The CG Patient Satisfation Survey system. CG does not charge for the number of surveys actually printed. The fee covers the pre-paid postage, data entry, and database management for the paper surveys. The postage for mailing The CG Patient Satisfation Survey is pre-paid, so patients do not have to pay postage. CG recommends each printing be 25 - 75 pages in each language for each physician based upon predominant languages for the practice. The surveys can be placed in a folder with the physician's name, and positioned so they can be easily accessed and handed to the patient by administrative staff when they check out or schedule their next appointment. The CG Patient Satisfation Survey Results and ReportsThe following reports can be viewed and printed from an individual's account:
Custom reports can be provided upon request for an additional charge. In organizations with multiple physicians, each of the above reports can be viewed for each physician. Additionally, The CG Patient Satisfation Survey administrator can compare physician to physician, physician to specialty summaries, and specialty to specialty, using any of the standard reports noted above. No. Individual account holders and The CG Patient Satisfation Survey administrators have 24/7/365 access to the reports page. The data from patients who respond to the email survey is available immediately. It goes directly to the physician or organization's database, by physician. It can be viewed and printed from the "View Results" page. The data from patients who respond to the paper survey is usually available in one week, assuming the patient sends the survey the same day as the visit. In general, there is about a 5 business day period required for the mailed form to get to CG's data center and have the survey processed. The time lag is due to the time required to receive the survey, and have it entered by hand into the database. If a custom report is desired, please contact CG with your request. Please include as many details as possible. CG will provide a cost estimate, based upon the complexity of the request. Survey-Specific and Design Questions
Random sampling is not necessary or particularly meaningful. The best sample is a complete sample; therefore the physician or organization's goal is to collect survey data on all patients all the time. It is important and relevant to know if even one patient is dissatisfied. With The CG Patient Satisfation Survey, CG recommends all patients receive the survey. Since cost is not based on the number of surveys sent out by email, it is cost effective, and provides a more complete sample. Even if only paper surveys are used, The CG Patient Satisfation Survey system is far less expensive than most other available survey systems. CG does not believe benchmarking is as important as many individuals and organizations have been led to believe. CG believes the critical question is "Am I, as an individual provider, achieving excellence within my own practice?" Benchmarking compares the individual's or organization's set of data to a larger set of data. The reality is that few Americans are truly satisfied with the healthcare service they receive. Further, many patient satisfaction surveys do not measure what patients really care about, or are written in a way to fulfilling some a marketing "need." In this light, is benchmarking against data reflecting a dissatisfied consumer group really helpful? We think not, and encourage each physician and each group to ignore "benchmarking" and focus on achieving the highest level of satisfaction they can. That said, CG does provide the ability of the individual or organization to compare their results to the normative average of The CG Patient Satisfation Survey database. We suggest these comparisons be made with caution, and that the goal be "How can I continue to improve," not "How can I beat the average."
The number of choices, not counting the "Not Applicable" response, is an even six, split evenly between dissatisfied/satisfied and disagree/agree. This was done intentionally to force the patient to commit to various degrees of either positive or negative feedback. CG believes that "unsure" or middle-of-the-road responses are unhelpful, when the goal is to seek continuous improvement. In addition, there is not general agreement between experts that an odd-choice scale is better or worse than an even-choice scale. There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach. The CG Patient Satisfation Survey was evaluated by Management Psychology Group (MPG) of Atlanta, GA to assess the validity of the survey. MPG found the survey sound in design given CG's goals of:
MPG found The CG Patient Satisfation Survey validated for item content, with evidence of construct validity. Further research will provide patient norms and additional information regarding the survey's validity. Additionally, CG will be researching the survey's efficacy in predicting important patient outcome measures and individual liability risk. The CG Patient Satisfation Survey is currently available in ten languages, including Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hmong, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese. The CG Patient Satisfation Survey meticulously designed to be brief. With only 25 questions, not counting optional demographics, its brevity increases response rates by avoiding respondent fatigue. Brevity also increases the quality of the data by reducing the "centrist tendency" (repetitive "middle-of-the-road" answers) that occurs with longer surveys. The CG Patient Satisfation Survey was intentionally written to read at the 4th grade level. CG feels strongly that such care in development helps to empower the low-literate population, who often has the lowest satisfaction in healthcare. This feature also increases response rates. No standardized survey can answer every question for every organization. The goal of The CG Patient Satisfation Survey is to measure those things that patients consider most important--not what the individual or organization thinks is most important. If one is able to achieve consistently high marks on The CG Patient Satisfation Survey, it is unlikely that other issues, like food, parking or other amenities, would result in significant patient dissatisfaction. While it is technically possible to add questions to The CG Patient Satisfation Survey, it is important to keep in mind the special design features of The CG Patient Satisfation Survey. First, The CG Patient Satisfation Survey has been validated in its current form. Added questions would need to undergo the validation process. Second, adding questions increases the length of the survey, which has a negative effect on response rate, resulting in lower quality data. Third, adding questions, depending upon their nature, could increase the reading difficulty of the survey, also having a negative effect on response rates and data quality. Fourth, adding questions would require development of a new database unique to the individual or organization. Fifth, The CG Patient Satisfation Survey was specifically designed to measure the eight dimensions of care that Picker Institute found patients cared most about. CG believes if these eight dimensions are effectively addressed for patients, other issues will have little relevance. Finally, CG is able to deliver The CG Patient Satisfation Survey at such good value because of the standardized survey and its web-based delivery. Adding questions would add significant per individual costs due to additional development. Individuals and organizations who are interested in altering The CG Patient Satisfation Survey are welcome to contact CG to discuss their ideas and/or requests.
If you have questions not answered by the User's Manual(PDF format),
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