Patient Satisfaction

Abstract

Patient satisfaction is a quantitative measure of how patient experience as they progress through the care process compares with their expectations. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are any report of the status of a patients’ health condition or health behavior that comes directly from a patient without interpretation by a clinician. This includes tools that measure health-related quality of life and symptoms. Patient-centered care is described as safe, effective, timely, efficient, and equitable care. Patient experience encompasses the cumulative evaluation of the patient with the healthcare system and providers; with particular focus on relationships, trust, and peace of mind. It is important to be realistic when giving specific expectations to patients and be encouraging of their effort while avoiding the tendency to show disappointment when they are unable to reach goals such as weight loss or smoking cessation. Communication is especially important for surgical patients who need to adequately understand the risks and benefits of a surgical procedure as part of the informed consent process and to have appropriate expectations of the potential outcomes. In addition to having clear, open communication with patients, physicians need to communicate well with the entire health care team. An institutional culture of safety encourages reporting patient safety events and focuses on providing safe, quality care by high performing teams. Patient satisfaction has been shown to correlate with a focus on safety, staffing, team work, organizational learning, timely communication of errors, and nonpunitive response to error. In addition to measuring and responding to patient satisfaction, healthcare organizations and physicians will need to evaluate drivers of patient satisfaction including patient-centered care, employee engagement, patient education, reliability, and coordination of care.