Founded in the 1980s by a medical anthropologist and a statistician, Press Ganey bills itself as continuing “to lead the patient experience industry,” hired by an estimated 50 percent of all U.S. hospitals. In 2015 it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public stock offering. Customer satisfaction is important and predicts repeat business, but it does not necessarily indicate medical quality. Studies have determined that such surveys have only a “tenuous” link with patient outcomes. Physicians hate them. But Medicare pays hospitals a bonus for performing well on
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