The Georgia Scroll
October 1998
The Results Are In
Tammy Herndon,FHFMA
The 1997-1998 Survey Committee chaired by Tammy Herndon, FHFMA under the direction of the Quality Council chaired by Meg Schley, CPA conducted a Membership Survey. This survey focused on three areas of the Chapter: Chapter Education, Chapter Communications and General Chapter Services. This survey was mailed to all 1300+ members of the Georgia Chapter during March 1998. One hundred sixty-six responses were received for an average return rate of 12.7%.
The average respondent was a CFO or CEO (28.3%) employed by a Hospital (42.2%) who has been an HFMA Member 0-6 years (37.4%) and is not HFMA certified (69.3%) and does not participate on a team (60.6%) but is interested in participating on a team (59.0%). The members completing in the survey gave the following responses in the areas of education, communication and general chapter services.
Overall Chapter education received a 90.3% very satisfied -satisfied rating. The number one reason for attending a chapter educational session was Topic Offered and Topic Offered received an 88.5% very satisfied-satisfied rating. The topic most respondents were interested in attending currently was Medicare Fraud and Abuse (56.8%). The speakers that the chapter has provided at the education sessions received an 89.1% very satisfied-satisfied rating. The location of education sessions was rated 77.7% very satisfied-satisfied and frequency of meeting was rated 85.3% very satisfied-satisfied. The number one best day for meetings was Friday (35.4%). The number one reason for not attending education sessions was work responsibilities (49.4%).
Chapter communications includes several mediums such as the Scroll, Chapter Directory, Hotline and Chapter Website. Each of these areas was evaluated by the members completing the survey with the following results. The Scroll received high rating as a communication tool with 76% reading every issue of the Scroll and 53.6% passing along an issue to a colleague. Most respondents agreed that the information in the Scroll was current ( 75.7%) and that the Scroll was visually appealing ( 69.5%). The most requested article for the Scroll was an article related to managed care. The Chapter Directory also received high marks as an effective communication tool with 78.9% having used the directory. The most highly used section of the directory was the membership roster (74.1%). Most respondents liked the three ring binder layout (78.9%) and 54.8% used their pocket directory. The Chapter Hotline was a service that was not widely used by the respondents with only 26.5% reporting that they had called the Hotline. These respondents rated the reimbursement mailbox the most useful . The Chapter Website was a service that was new to most respondents with 31.9% accessing the website 5 or less times. If available on the website 40.4% would be interested in Workshop information, 38.6% would be interested in the Chapter Directory, and 373% would be interested in Institute information. Most respondents rated hard copy communications via mail as their favorite way to receive communications (83.7%).
Other chapter services such as networking , social activities and certifications were also evaluated by the respondents. Networking with other members was rated at 91.4% very-somewhat valuable. When asked to identify the greatest benefit of your membership in the Georgia chapter Networking and Education were the top two responses. Social activities of the chapter were rated as very-somewhat valuable by 77.7% of the respondents. Thirty percent of the respondents were certified members, for those not certified, time constraints was the number one reason given for not attaining certification.
The 97-98 Survey gave Chapter Administration a tool to assess the services that the Chapter offers to its members. As you can see by the results reported most members are pleased with the services that the chapter offers. Some of the newer services such as the hotline and the website have lots of room to grow in the future. The Chapter will continue to monitor itself through membership surveys. Watch for the next survey in the winter of 1999.
Last modified: June 22, 2001