Patient satisfaction

Patient satisfaction is a measure of the extent to which a patient is content with the health care which they received from their health care provider.

In evaluations of health care quality, patient satisfaction is a performance indicator measured in a self-report study and a specific type of customer satisfaction metric.

Because patients may be dissatisfied with health care which improves their health or satisfied with health care which does not, there are circumstances in which patient satisfaction is not a valid indicator of health care quality even though it is often used as such.

Many studies have failed to identify a relationship between patient satisfaction and health care quality.

Patients' satisfaction with an encounter with health care service is mainly dependent on the duration and efficiency of care, and how empathetic and communicative the health care providers are. It is favored by a good doctor-patient relationship. Also, patients who are well-informed of the necessary procedures in a clinical encounter, and the time it is expected to take, are generally more satisfied even if there is a longer waiting time. Another critical factor influencing patient satisfaction is the job satisfaction experienced by the care-provider.

A study in UK Primary Care, where there has been discussion around the linking of patient satisfaction data to funding showed that there are concerns with this due to negative correlations with both practice list size and deprivation potentially penalising some high performing practices and thus serious thought needs to be given prior to any such implementation.

In United States, hospitals whose surgery patients reported being highly satisfied also by other measures had higher quality care for their surgery. The implication of this is that patient satisfaction does not need to hinder quality care, and that both can exist together.

The Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems or CAHPS survey is an ongoing research project to guide the development of consumer surveys being used assess the quality of care provided by health plans, physician groups, and clinicians. It is an example of a major research effort which studies the significance of consumer responses to surveys.

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