Distress and Dissatisfaction Detection Survey by Dr. Jennifer Christian of Webility Improves Injury Care Process

I  recently interviewed Dr. Jennifer Christian about an employee satisfaction, er . . . dissatisfaction survey program her company offers. This program was of interest to me because it is an excellent way to assess the gaps in an employer's injury process. The program gathers feedback about employees’ experiences with the claims process shortly after an injury — while there is still time to change the outcome. Here’s what she says …

 

The purpose of our new Distress & Dissatisfaction Detection program, also called “3D’s,” is to alert customers to situations that have gotten off on the wrong foot while the situation is still fluid enough for them to do something about it.  
Webility  reaches out by phone to injured workers within a short time after injury (typically 10-14 days) to see how they are doing and if they are satisfied with how things are going so far. These calls serve as a fail-safe step following behind whatever early claims response process the employer already has in place. 

 

Underlying this program is the assumption that a small but very important number of workers are experiencing distress or dissatisfaction at this interval. Distressed claimants may keep seeking medical care beyond what is needed, and dissatisfied claimants tend to get lawyers. A small number of problem claims generate the bulk of loss costs. Getting just a few situations back on the right track before they really go south could make a big difference. 

 

The employer establishes the criteria for which workers should be contacted and how long to wait after the injury to make the calls. Trained interviewers with experience in the workers’ comp injury care process conduct a short and carefully scripted survey.  Call time is usually less than 5 minutes unless there is a problem.  The surveyors ask a series of questions designed to reveal which injured workers are: (a) in distress and/or (b) have experienced a service failure of some sort and are dissatisfied/upset.  The questions also yield actionable information. 

 

If distress or dissatisfaction is detected, the interviewer documents the details and analyzes the nature of the issue. Then, based on internal protocols and customer instructions, a call report is sent to the appropriate party or parties. The customer reviews the call report and decides whether and how to intervene. Some situations may be amenable to immediate corrective action.  Others may not. 

 

Webility’s surveyors also record and classify all answers in a database in Webility’s system in order to permit reporting of aggregate results.  Customers can use survey program results to identify patterns such as staff/vendor performance, process improvement opportunities and employees’ overall satisfaction with all involved parties’ response to their needs. 

 

Dr. Christian has piloted the disSatisfaction Survey with a regional workers’ comp carrier who felt it was very helpful.  Although originally worried about what the results would show, they were gratified that satisfaction levels were HIGHER for the claims organization than for either the employer or medical provider.  A number of claims with early trouble were identified and interventions were conducted.  The client learned a lot during the pilot and changed several steps of their post injury process.