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Health-care managers have to address many aspects of the organization, and patient satisfaction is clearly one of the critical aspects for managers. To respond to the need of health-care managers, there have been many patient satisfaction studies. However, these studies focus on which attributes (factors such as nursing care and physician care) are more influential; they do not provide specific aspects for each attribute. In order to develop an effective intervention programme to improve patient satisfaction, more specific research outcomes are needed. This study utilized data collected between January 2007 and June 2008 from 32 hospitals representing a large, national private not-for-profit hospital system. The patient satisfaction survey included the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, Hospital version questionnaire items, and there are 31,471 cases. Two-stage multiple linear regression analyses were conducted with control variables (age, gender, perceived health, education and race). It was found that patients' highest priority is to be treated with courtesy and respect by nurses and physicians. An effective intervention programme to improve patient satisfaction would include a training programme, where care providers understand that patients want them to show courtesy and respect. Then, well-trained and empathetic nurses and staff members can comfort patients, and consequently improve patient satisfaction.

This article examines the extent to which older adult patients' perceptions of inpatient dimensions of care experiences are associated with their overall satisfaction. A secondary objective is to determine if these specific care experiences differed between elderly female and male patients. Patient satisfaction data from 6,021 older patients (65 years of age and older) were collected by using the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) Survey through telephone interviews of older patients who were recently discharged. Multiple linear regression analyses with older patients' HCAHPS dimensions (Communication With Nurses, Communication With Doctors, Responsiveness of Hospital Staff, Communication About Medicines, Cleanliness of the Hospital Environment, and Quietness of Hospital Environment) and gender were conducted while controlling for self-rated health status, age, race, and education. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that all of the HCAHPS dimensions were significantly associated with overall satisfaction. Older female patients reported substantially more positive global evaluations than their male counterparts. However, for older male patients, Communication With Doctors was more influential in their ratings of overall satisfaction than for older female patients. For older female patients, Communication With Nurses was more influential in their ratings of overall satisfaction than for older male patients.

The purpose of this article is to review the literature from 1980 to 2005 regarding organ donation decision making by African Americans for themselves and their loved ones and recommend improvements in subsequent studies. Using the behavioral model of health services utilization as an organizing framework, the review procedure consists of a (1) search of health and medical literature using several key words and eight indexes, (2) selection of articles based on specific criteria, and (3) review of each article with regard to the population and sample used, study design, dependent variables addressed, and its findings. The review indicates that predisposing, enabling, and need factors each influence African Americans' organ donation decision making. Retrospective chart reviews provide a good design for future multivariate analyses of the many factors influencing African American decision making. Interventions to influence decision making should emphasize both community education and the process of organ procurement.

This article considers several models of how patients integrate their reactions to hospital attributes and how these reactions impact their overall satisfaction and behavioral intentions. It finds that patients combine their reactions to the attributes by means of noncompensatory and nonlinear models to form their overall satisfaction or behavioral intentions.

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The critical differences found in this study provide a very important implication for health care managers developing an intervention program to improve patient satisfaction. A one-size-fits-all strategy would not work for all patients. Caucasian and African American patients are different, and each requires a different intervention program to improve their overall evaluation of their hospital stay.