The New Wave of Foodservice Technology in Senior Care

Nursing home customer satisfaction improves, employee satisfaction stays level, according to survey

The 2011–2012 National Research Survey of Customer and Employee Satisfaction, conducted by the National Research Corporation, reflects growing satisfaction among residents and families with their skilled nursing facilities. The Resident and Family Experience surveys asked for a review of 22 SNF experiences that spanned the areas of quality of life, quality of care and quality of services.

According to the National Research Corporation surveys, long-stay residents and their families gave respectfulness of staff, nursing care and safety the highest satisfaction rates. Ninety percent or more of the respondents indicated “good” or “excellent” overall experiences.

On the other side of the coin, the percent of “good” and “excellent” responses from long-term residents and families were lowest in the areas of meal quality (71 percent), sufficient staffing (74 percent) and the security of personal belongings (82 percent).

Eight-seven percent of short-stay residents provided an overall “good” or “excellent” rating of overall satisfaction. For short-stay residents, treatment by staff received 95 percent “good” or “excellent” ratings. High satisfaction levels for short-stay residents were in the areas of rehab therapy and help with admissions  (both received 93 percent “excellent” rating). Like long-term residents, nursing care and respectfulness also ranked as areas of highest satisfaction.

In the Employee Engagement survey, three groups (nurses, CNAs and the full workforce) of skilled nursing employees were asked to comment on three key areas: (1) resources, (2) relationships and (3) commitment to provide managers and other facility leaders an employee perspective. Although overall satisfaction only reaches a high of less than 70 percent, their scores are higher for “respectfulness of staff,” “sense of accomplishment,” “safety of workplace” and quality of in-service education. One low spot for all three groups is “assistance with job stress.” Unlike the customer satisfaction results, these scores stayed nearly the same as last year’s Employee Engagement Survey.


Topics: Leadership , Staffing