Satisfaction with the outpatient encounter

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:To compare patients' and physicians' visit-specific satisfaction in an internal medicine outpatient setting, and to explain their respective views. DESIGN:Patients' and physicians' background characteristics were assessed prior to outpatient encounters. Immediately after the encounter, both patients and physicians completed a questionnaire assessing satisfaction with the visit. SETTING:The outpatient division of an academic teaching hospital. PARTICIPANTS:Thirty residents and specialists in general internal medicine, rheumatology, and gastroenterology, and 330 patients having a follow-up appointment with one of these physicians. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS:Patients' and physicians' visit-specific satisfaction was assessed using 5 Visual Analogue Scales (0 to 100). Patients' overall satisfaction was higher than physicians' satisfaction (mean 81 vs. 66), and correlation of patients' and physicians' overall satisfaction with the specific visit was medium sized ( r = .28, P < .001). Patients' satisfaction ratings were associated with their previsit self-efficacy in communicating with their physician ( P < .001) and with visiting a female physician ( P < .01). Physicians' satisfaction was associated with patients' higher educational level ( P < .05), primary language being Dutch ( P < .001), better mental health ( P < .05), and preference for receiving less than full information ( P < .05). CONCLUSIONS:In an outpatient setting, patients' visit-specific satisfaction ratings were substantially higher than, and only moderately associated with, physicians' ratings of the same visit. The dissimilar predictors explaining patients' and physicians' satisfaction suggest that patients and physicians form their opinion about a consultation in different ways. Hence, when evaluating outpatient encounters, physicians' satisfaction has additional value to patients' satisfaction in establishing quality of care.KEY WORDS: physician-patient relations; patient satisfaction; physician satisfaction; outpatients.

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“…The questionnaire is developed and tested in the home situation in the Netherlands. Physician satisfaction turned out to be substantially lower than patient satisfaction, both at item level and at overall satisfaction level [39]. This finding is consistent with other patient satisfaction studies [40,41].…”

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“…Care providers might not be aware of this need for information, as it was shown that provision of information was valued more by patients than by physicians. 18 Other studies have also highlighted the psychosocial care need found in our study. Lifestyle and emotional issues were not addressed by GPs and specialists for over 75% of patients in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, 10 and the prevalence of depression in persons with SCI of approximately 20% was higher than that in the average population (10%).…”

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“…Qualitatively derived themes guided questionnaire development. Validated patient satisfaction surveys [24][25][26][27][28] were searched for items relating to these themes. Items relating to overall patient satisfaction were also extracted from the Press Ganey survey.…”

“…Interview themes were compared to existing literature about patient satisfaction and observer presence in consultations. Items from validated questionnaires were used [24][25][26][27][28] to generate a final list of 22 items (by author consensus) that pertained to the qualitatively derived themes, which were selected for inclusion, some of which had negative valence to other items ('I felt that I had the doctor's full attention' vs 'I felt that the doctor was distracted') to test for reliability. Five items were unaltered Press Ganey overall patient satisfaction questions.…”