The Basics

This standard requires that your organization respond to the needs of your consumers by implementing a mechnism to ask for and respond to consumers' ideas about how your organization can better serve consumers.  To meet this requirement, your organization may take one or more of several approaches, including conducting satisfaction surveys and developing consumer materials that encourage consumers to call with suggestions. 

Management Tips

A robust consumer suggestion collection system will address multiple means of communicating with your organization, including telephonic, eveluation cards, and surveys mailed to individual consumers, to name just a few.

However, you'll need more than just suggestion-collection.  Rather, you'll need to take it a step further and actually do something with those suggestions, including

• keeping a suggestion log;
• tracking responses to consumer suggestions; and even
• implementing a policy change in response to consumer feedback.

Make sure your applicable P&P addresses all of these elements of a robust consumer suggestion approach.

URAC Accreditation Tips

This standard is weighted 3.

For the desktop review, provide a variety of sample documents in addition to your P&Ps or Communications Plan, including survey results, correspondence with consumers (including newsletters), and an analysis of consumer satisfaction survey results, along with evidence that the analysis was presented to the quality management committee.