Predictors of patient satisfaction with hospital health care.
BACKGROUND
We used a validated inpatient satisfaction questionnaire to evaluate the health care received by patients admitted to several hospitals. This questionnaire was factored into distinct domains, creating a score for each to assist in the analysis. We evaluated possible predictors of patient satisfaction in relation to socio-demographic variables, history of admission, and survey logistics.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study of patients discharged from four acute care general hospitals. Random sample of 650 discharged patients from the medical and surgical wards of each hospital during February and March 2002. A total of 1,910 patients responded to the questionnaire (73.5%). Patient satisfaction was measured by a validated questionnaire with six domains: information, human care, comfort, visiting, intimacy, and cleanliness. Each domain was scored from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating higher levels of patient satisfaction.


RESULTS
In the univariate analysis, age was related to all domains except visiting; gender to comfort, visiting, and intimacy; level of education to comfort and cleanliness; marital status to information, human care, intimacy, and cleanliness; length of hospital stay to visiting and cleanliness, and previous admissions to human care, comfort, and cleanliness. The timing of the response to the mailing and who completed the questionnaire were related to all variables except visiting and cleanliness. Multivariate analysis confirmed in most cases the previous findings and added additional correlations for level of education (visiting and intimacy) and marital status (comfort and visiting).


CONCLUSIONS
These results confirm the varying importance of some socio-demographic variables and length of stay, previous admission, the timing of response to the questionnaire, and who completed the questionnaire on some aspects of patient satisfaction after hospitalization. All these variables should be considered when evaluating patient satisfaction.
Quintana
José M
JM
Unidad de Investigación, Hospital de Galdakao, Galdakao, Spain. jmquinta@hgda.osakidetza.net
González
Nerea
N
Bilbao
Amaia
A
Aizpuru
Felipe
F
Escobar
Antonio
A
Esteban
Cristóbal
C
San-Sebastián
José Antonio
JA
de-la-Sierra
Emilio
E
Thompson
Andrew
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006769:Hospitals, General / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital / Q000592:standards; D010343:Patient Admission; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care / Q000145:classification* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires