In gauging patient satisfaction, the question sometimes arises: "Do patients tend to perceive the quality of hospital services differently according to the nature of their ailment?"
Patient Satisfaction by Patient Type
It's not an easy question to answer. Consistently high occupancy levels at many facilities mandate that patients be assigned based on the availability of an open bed, not by medical diagnosis. This typically means specialty units consist of only a portion of patients with a particular condition.
However, that doesn't fully preclude addressing the question of whether patient satisfaction varies by diagnostic category. Gallup examined more than 100,000 patient interviews at more than 200 hospitals in both 1999 and 2000. For each interview, the overall satisfaction score was sorted into one of 17 diagnostic categories.
A Patient Is a Patient Is a Patient
The results indicated patient satisfaction scores by diagnostic category proved remarkably stable, with few significant changes observed. As a group, no significant difference is observed in either 1999 or 2000 inpatient satisfaction by diagnostic category. This consistency illustrates that while the diagnoses may be different, the opportunities for satisfaction remain the same.
Patient Satisfaction: Mean Scores by Diagnostic Category
|
2000 |
1999 |
|
|
Transplant |
3.75 |
3.75 |
|
Cardio- |
3.62 |
3.63 |
|
Obstetrics |
3.62 |
3.62 |
|
Cardiology |
3.53 |
3.53 |
|
Gynecology |
3.53 |
3.52 |
|
Oncology |
3.52 |
3.50 |
|
Neuro- |
3.51 |
3.51 |
|
Diabetes |
3.50 |
3.50 |
|
Pulmonary |
3.49 |
3.48 |
|
Vascular |
3.49 |
3.49 |
|
Orthopedics |
3.48 |
3.45 |
|
Surgery |
3.48 |
3.46 |
|
Neurology |
3.47 |
3.45 |
|
Medicine |
3.46 |
3.45 |
|
Other |
3.46 |
3.45 |
|
Urology |
3.46 |
3.44 |
|
Gastro- |
3.41 |
3.42 |
4=very satisfied; 3=satisfied; 2=somewhat satisfied; 1=very dissatisfied
Key Points
When it comes to patient satisfaction and quality improvement, differences by patient diagnostic categories may be a red herring, and focusing on those differences could pose an unnecessary barrier to quality improvement. Instead, Gallup research indicates that the key to quality improvement lies in measurement and implementation at the workgroup level, which in most facilities encompasses more than one patient category.