Improving patient satisfaction in hospital care settings

Abstract

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.

Evaluating the Influence of Perceived Pain Control on Patient Satisfaction in a Hospital Setting

“…This was true among all the patients that responded, no matter their perceived level of pain control. This is consistent with other patient satisfaction studies (Otani et al 2010a(Otani et al , 2010b(Otani et al , 2011. Judging by the parameter estimates, nursing care consistently had a much larger impact than staff care, physician care, or environment.…”

“…Patients are regularly seen as customers now, so it is important to maximize customer satisfaction, as is the case in any business. High patient satisfaction is desired so that patients will both be willing to use the hospital again and to recommend the hospital to others (Otani, Herrmann, and Kurz 2010a, 2010b, 2011. Therefore, hospitals continuously work to determine which aspects of hospital care and which patient demographics can best determine patient satisfaction and the willingness for patients to recommend that hospital.…”

“…These studies have looked at age, gender, race, and other factors such as education level and overall health. Certain studies have found that older patients and male patients are more satisfied than are younger patients and female patients (Otani et al 2010a(Otani et al , 2010b(Otani et al , 2011. Additional studies have been conducted to determine if and how healthcare provider behaviors affect the satisfaction of patients (Wagner and Bear 2008;Seiler et al 2012).…”

“…Each specific attribute may have more influence on satisfaction than another, as patients may not necessarily place equal emphasis on the attribute (Otani et al 2010a(Otani et al , 2010b(Otani et al , 2011. Therefore, it is important to understand which attributes receive the most emphasis from patients, for hospitals to promote and encourage overall satisfaction.…”

The Asssociations between Accreditation Status, Patient Socio-Economic Factors, Insurance Type, Patient Perceived Quality of Service, and Satisfaction at Community Health Center

“…Penelitian ini didukung oleh penelitian yang dilakukan oleh Otani et al (2011) yang meneliti hubungan antara faktor demografi seperti usia, jenis kelamin, status kesehatan, dan tingkat pendidikan dengan kepuasan pasien. Penelitian yang dilakukan di 32 Rumah Sakit rujukan di Amerika Serikat ini menunjukkan bahwa pasien yang lebih tua dari 50 tahun, pasien dengan masa pearwatan yang lebih pendek atau status kesehatan yang lebih baik, serta dengan tingkat pendidikan yang lebih rendah, memberikan skor yang lebih tinggi terhadap domain terkait pelayanan kesehatan.…”