How do hospitalization experience and institutional characteristics influence inpatient satisfaction? A multilevel approach

Abstract

Over the last several years, interest in benchmarking health services’ quality—particularly patient satisfaction (PS)—across organizations has increased. Comparing patient experiences of care across hospitals requires risk adjustment to control for important differences in patient case-mix and provider characteristics. This study investigates the individual-level and organizational-level determinants of PS with public hospitals by applying hierarchical models. The analysis focuses on the effect of hospital characteristics, such as self-discharges, on overall evaluations and on across hospital variation in scores. Sociodemographics, admission mode, place of residence, hospitalization ward and continuity of care were statistically significant predictors of inpatient satisfaction. Interestingly, it was observed that hospitals with a higher percentage of Patients Leaving Against Medical Advice (PLAMA) received lower scores. The latter result suggests that the percentage of PLAMA may provide a useful measure of a hospital’s inability to meet patient needs and a proxy indicator of PS with hospital care.

Is the co-location of GPs in primary care centres associated with a higher patient satisfaction? Evidence from a population survey in Italy

“…This moderate statistically significant variance observed both at the FAG and GP levels (InCCs respectively 1.2 and 6.3%) is in line with other studies where patient satisfaction variability is mainly explained by patient level [58, 59]. The moderate contextual effect of FAG and GP clusters, which explained respectively only the 1.2 and 6.3% of variance, confirms also the evidence that patient satisfaction is consistently influenced by individual expectations [60, 61].…”

The Italian version of the Physical Therapy Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire - [PTPSQ-I(15)]: psychometric properties in a sample of inpatients

“…These results are similar to those found by Murante et al [20], who showed that living in the hospital area (and, more probably, referred by a doctor) negatively affected patients’ overall experience. In our study the level of satisfaction was higher for those individuals who were recommended by former patients or who answered “Other”, who appear to have made an informed decision specifically on the basis of their needs and preferences.…”

How do hospital‐specialty characteristics influence health system responsiveness? An empirical evaluation of in‐patient care in the Italian region of Emilia‐Romagna

“…Finally, many studies have investigated the influence on patient satisfaction of hospital size (e.g., Young et al, ; Sjetne et al, ; Bacon & Mark, ; Hekkert, Cihangir, Kleefstra, Van den Berg, & Kool, ; Murante, Seghieri, Brown, & Nuti, ) and of case mix (e.g., Bacon & Mark, ; Ansmann et al, ). Although these variables are not strictly linked to responsiveness, we include them as controls for the hospital organisational models.…”