Inter-profession cooperation and patient satisfaction with medical treatment

Abstract

Given that a competent medical institution will offer high quality medical service, we examined how cooperative teamwork between medical professions affects patients' and nurses' evaluations about the quality of medical care, and patient satisfaction. Outpatients (n=290), inpatients (n=205), and nurses (n=108) participated in the questionnaire survey. The results indicated the following. First, outpatient satisfaction was positively related to favorable evaluations of the treatment provided by doctors. Second, there was a positive relationship between inpatient satisfaction and favorable evaluations of nurses, as well as of the coordination between medical professions. Third, self-evaluation of nurses on cooperation with other professions had a positive effect on patient evaluation about this cooperation, which in turn increased inpatient satisfaction. These findings suggest that cooperation between nurses and other medicals professions improves patient satisfaction and results in high quality medical service.