Evaluation of patient satisfaction in hospitals in China 2003–2013: A national longitudinal analysis of population-based survey data

Abstract

Understanding the perception of patients towards the quality of hospitals is critical to policy development and improvement. However, there remains a dearth of literature examining the impact of the new health reform launched by China's government in 2009 on the changes of the patient satisfaction. Thus, the aim of this paper was to evaluate long-term trends in patient satisfaction to healthcare providers in China from 2003 to 2013. The data from three rounds (2003, 2008, and 2013) of the National Health Service Survey. The unsatisfactory rate, hospital satisfaction assessment and the most dissatisfied items for outpatients and inpatients in urban and rural areas in China were considered Percentages changes from 2003 to 2008, 2008 to 2013, and 2003 to 2013 were calculated to descriptively show the trends of patient satisfaction between these 10 years. Chi-square tests regarding the changes of each item between any two years were carried out to evaluate temporal variance. The results reveal a significant overall improvement in the patient satisfaction of both inpatients and outpatients in urban and rural areas in China from 2003 to 2013, especially for the period between 2008 and 2013. However, the percentage of outpatients who dissatisfied with the waiting time for treatment largely increased between 2008 and 2013. In addition, both inpatients and outpatients tended to pay more attention to the service quality and medical expense. With respect to the patient-physician trust relationship, an overall marked improvement could be identified. The findings of this study are unique in presenting the patient satisfaction at the national level in China, which highlight a need to carry out more national actions focusing on the optimization of visiting mechanism, the deduction of medical costs and the improvement of doctors' service and medical quality.