title: Patient satisfaction: the Australian patient perspective.
abstract: The literature reveals little Australian academic study of the phenomenon of patient satisfaction and identifies several problems in current research practice. A theoretical discussion about the phenomenon of patient satisfaction' is for the most part absent, the rigour in the methods applied is often dubious, a definition of patient satisfaction is not agreed and the patient experience is often not the focus of research. To address some of these issues inductive research was conducted with Australian patients to explore what they considered important for patient satisfaction to exist. A series of 52 interviews were conducted with twenty elective surgery patients in an Australian teaching hospital Patients were interviewed on admission to hospital, within one week of discharge from hospital and between six and eight weeks after discharge. Research with patients identified 16 themes that were important to make a patients hospital stay satisfactory. Qualitative data have provided a foundation to better understand what patient satisfaction' means in its everyday use. Such an approach is faithful to the concerns and priorities of the patients who are the users of health care services.
authors.affiliation: College of Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Henderson
authors.forename: Gideon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Caplan
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Daniel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001315:Australia; D017558:Elective Surgical Procedures / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D015285:Hospital-Patient Relations; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D013503:Surgery Department, Hospital / Q000592:standards*