Race/ethnicity and patient satisfaction. Using the appropriate method to test for perceived differences in care.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether an established patient satisfaction scale commonly used in the primary care setting is sufficiently sensitive to identify racial/ethnic differences in satisfaction that may exist; to compare a composite indicator of overall patient satisfaction with a 4-item satisfaction scale that measures only the quality of the direct physician-patient interaction.


METHODS
Real-time survey of patients during a primary care office visit.


METHODS
Private medical offices in a generally affluent area of northern California.


METHODS
Five hundred thirty-seven primary care patients selected at random from those entering a medical office.


METHODS
Patient satisfaction using 1) a composite, 9-item satisfaction scale (VSQ-9); and 2) a 4-item subset of that scale that measures only satisfaction with direct physician care.


RESULTS
The 9-item, composite scale identified no significant difference in patient satisfaction between white and nonwhite patients, after controlling for patient demographics and other aspects of the visit. The 4-item, physician-specific scale indicated that nonwhite patients were less satisfied than white patients with their direct interaction with the physicians included in the study (P </=.01).


CONCLUSIONS
Measurements of patient satisfaction that use multi-item, composite indicators should also include focused comparisons of satisfaction directly with the care provided by the physician. In measurements of patient satisfaction, patient race/ethnicity should be included as an explanatory variable. The results also confirm earlier findings that factors external to the direct physician-patient interaction can have substantial effects on patients' perceptions of that interaction.
Barr
Donald A
DA
Department of Sociology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2160, USA. barr@stanford.edu
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology; D002140:California; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys / Q000379:methods; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009819:Office Visits; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000208:ethnology*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology