Patient Satisfaction Investigations and the Emergency Department: What Does the Literature Say?

Abstract

Abstract. Background: Patient satisfaction is an indicator of the quality of care provided by emergency department (ED) personnel. It is this perception of satisfaction that becomes the basis for future ED choice or the recommendation of a specific ED to other potential patients. Objective: To perform an evidence-based literature review to: 1) characterize measures of ''patient satisfaction''; 2) identify factors that have been associated with overall ED patient satisfaction; 3) critique the methods used to assess patient satisfaction in the literature; and 4) address how this information can be beneficial to those reading the satisfaction literature or designing a satisfaction survey instrument. Methods: The MEDLINE database was searched for studies addressing ED patient satisfaction, from January 1976 through July 1999, using MeSH terms and a text word search. Bibliographies of manuscripts also were searched for additional relevant articles and each clinical study was used as a search criterion in Science Citation Index, from the date of publication through July 1999. Results: Multiple measures have been used to evaluate overall patient satisfaction. Sixteen studies were found associating ED patient satisfaction with service and patient factors. Most studies are observational and of these, most are cross-sectional. Hence, causeand-effect determination of factors responsible for patient satisfaction cannot be resolved using the current literature. Conclusions: Despite considerable methodologic variability, key themes (e.g., association of satisfaction with patient information, provider-patient interpersonal factors, and perceived waiting time) emerge from review of the ED patient satisfaction literature. To standardize future investigations, clinicians and investigators should use a common definition for the state of overall patient satisfaction, e.g., when the patient's own expectations for treatment and care are met (or exceeded). This common definition should be incorporated into the instrument used to measure overall ED patient satisfaction.

Time Seeing a Hand Surgeon Is Not Associated With Patient Satisfaction

“…Our finding that time spent with the hand surgeon did not correlate with patient satisfaction is consistent with findings in emergency care [26] but inconsistent with findings in primary care [3]. It is unclear why time with the physician and satisfaction vary among medical specialties.…”

“…The relationship between longer waiting time and decreased satisfaction for specialty outpatient office visits [8,15,30], emergency medicine [26,27], and primary care is consistent across studies [3,6,14,23]. One study of surgery outpatients found that patients remained ''reasonably satisfied'' after up to 37 minutes of waiting time [15].…”

“…Previous studies, predominantly in the primary care setting, identified time spent with the physician as an important predictor of patient satisfaction [3,8,12,26]. Most of the studies on time spent in the office uses a cross-sectional survey design in which patients are asked-at a time remote from the visit-about their satisfaction and their perceived waiting time and time with the physician [3,8,14,15,27,30].…”

Contextual and individual factors associated with dissatisfaction with public emergency health services in Brazil, 2011-2012

“…Some studies conducted with different methodologies and in different countries evaluating patient satisfaction have been emphasized in order to improve the quality of the services 10,18,19,20,21 . The satisfaction with emergency health services has mainly been associated with physical comfort, medical and nursing care 18,19 , gender, place of residence, civil status, income 20 , education, and age 20,21 .…”

CORR Insights®: Time Seeing a Hand Surgeon Is Not Associated With Patient Satisfaction

“…Previous studies in the primary care environment [1][2][3]6] have suggested that patient satisfaction is directly related to the amount of time spent with the physician. For the current study by Teunis and colleagues, the amount of time the patient spent with a hand surgeon was not associated with patient satisfaction; rather, longer wait times were associated with relative dissatisfaction as measured immediately after the visit and reassessed 2 weeks later.…”