Patient satisfaction in specialized versus nonspecialized adult sickle cell care centers: the PiSCES study.
BACKGROUND
Sickle cell disease (SCD) patients can receive their ambulatory care from either SCD specialists (caregivers with sickle cell-only clinics) or nonspecialized care centers. Patient satisfaction, an important factor that may influence compliance and outcome, can differ between the two groups because of the perceived quality of care, outcomes or practice style.


METHODS
We administered a patient satisfaction survey to 308 participants in an SCD prospective cohort study. Of the 308 patients, 133 (43.2%) received the majority of their SCD care at specialized centers, 152 (49.3%) received their care from nonspecialized centers and 26 (7.5) did not provide information. The satisfaction surveys measured general satisfaction (GS), technical quality (TQ), interpersonal manner (IM), communication (CM), financial aspects (FA), time spent with doctor (TA), and accessibility and convenience (AC). Patients reported their levels of satisfaction using a five-point Likert scale. We compared unadjusted group means, as well as means adjusted for potential confounders such as marital status, on patient satisfaction between specialized and nonspecialized centers.


RESULTS
SCD patients who received their care from specialized centers had significantly higher mean satisfaction scores, compared to those who received their care from nonspecialized centers: GS 4.00(+/-0.93) vs. 3.66 (+/- 01.16, p=0.0326), TQ 3.98 (+/- 0.77) vs. 3.65 (+/- 0.91, p=0.0058), AC 3.83 (+/-0.79) vs. 3.51 (+/- 1.02, p=0.0142) , FA 3.88 (+/-0.96) vs. 3.49 (+/-1.25, p=0.0120). There were no statistically significant group differences in IM, TA and CM.


CONCLUSIONS
SCD patients who received most of their SCD care from specialized centers had somewhat higher satisfaction scores in some areas when compared with patients who received their care from nonspecialized centers.
Aisiku
Imoigele P
IP
Department of Anesthesia/Critical Care & Emergency Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23298, USA. iaisiku@vcu.edu
Penberthy
Lynne T
LT
Smith
Wally R
WR
Bovbjerg
Viktor E
VE
McClish
Donna K
DK
Levenson
James L
JL
Roberts
John D
JD
Roseff
Susan D
SD
D000328:Adult; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D000755:Anemia, Sickle Cell / Q000523:psychology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008511:Medicine; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018579:Patient Selection; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D013038:Specialization; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014768:Virginia / Q000453:epidemiology