Priscilla Snodgrass, MD, is a gastroenterologist at NorthStar Surgical Center in Lubbock, Texas. She identifies seven practices that help ensure patient, staff and physician satisfaction.
1. Provide patients with warm blankets and reassurance. "Patients come in, they're stripped of their clothing and put in a tiny gown; the rooms are cold — a warm blanket and [working to] keep the patient warm when they are naked, away from family, away from all of their sense of security … means that they are secure, much like a small child," Dr. Snodgrass says. "They are also told they would be cared for just as if they were a member of our own family would be cared for makes them feel reassured.
"It's the little things that actually mean the most to patients," she says.
2. Physicians meeting with patients before procedures. Dr. Snodgrass describes herself as "old school" since she always meets with her patients before a procedure. This gives her the opportunity to provide the reassurance noted in #1.
"A colonoscopy — if you actually think about the technicalities of inserting a seven-foot scope up a rectum — just about anyone can learn the technical aspect of that," she says. "But when you go to have that done, you want that to be done for you, not to you. When you got to an ASC, you want to feel like a procedure is being performed for you, not too you. Our society is becoming highly intolerant of healthcare providers that do things to patients, not for them."
3. In the event of bad news, bring patients and their families together. Dr. Snodgrass says that in the event of a positive result from a colonoscopy, she works to bring the patient and his or her family together to discuss it.
"I always try to include the family with the patient in that bad news and say, 'We have a bad diagnosis here but we're going to look at it in the face and we're going to deal with it and we're going to start working on it right now and facing it together,'" she says.
4. Send family members out to get patients a drink after the procedure. After Dr. Snodgrass completes a procedure, she goes out to the waiting room, talks to the patient's family members to update them on the procedure and then asks if they will go to the nearby Sonic restaurant and purchase the patient a milk shake or fruit smoothie.
"By the time they come back, the patient will be out of recovery and they'll have their favorite [drink]," she says. "This way, the patient will have something more nutritious than just a soda and the patients love that because they've been fasting all night and all day until the procedure starts. This gives [family members] relief and to make them not keep waiting the lobby. They also feel like they're participating in the care of the patient, they look like the hero to the family member because they brought them the milk shake. It's a win-win all around."
5. Staff members "bend over backwards" to ensure physician comfort. Dr. Snodgrass is about 5'1", which she notes is not as tall as the average gastroenterologist. Her team "bends over backwards" to make sure the room is accommodated for her and her size.
"The team always makes sure to accommodate any of the equipment for me, and if there's anything I need, my technicians will do anything to make sure it's accommodating for my size and stature so everything with the procedure goes smoothly," she says.
6. Staff maintain enthusiasm, support every day. Dr. Snodgrass says a critical reason for the high satisfaction at her ASC — for patients, physicians and staff members — is the level of enthusiasm that is maintained by the staff every day.
"They are enthusiastic every day, even when they're having a bad day," she says. "If anybody is having a bad day, everyone pulls together to try to make that person's day go better. They know that if every one on the team is happy, then the procedures will go more smoothly. We almost always inevitably have 100 percent good days."
7. Show appreciation for staff members. "One thing our GI lab does is every Thanksgiving, we have a Thanksgiving coffee," Dr. Snodgrass says. "We hire a barista to come in and [provide] a variety of specialty coffees, chai teas and hot chocolate, and we make homemade desserts. It's the GI lab's thing we do every Thanksgiving as a show of appreciation for everyone who has assisted the lab. It's very heartfelt, and it's a big hit."
Dr. Snodgrass says she regularly tries to personally recognize when team members do something particularly good. "I try to do a special shout-out when they do really [well] and bring that to the whole team's attention," she says.
Learn more about NorthStar Surgical Center.
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