title: Does patient perception of pain control affect patient satisfaction across surgical units in a tertiary teaching hospital?
abstract: In this study, the relationship between patients' perceptions of pain control during hospitalization and their overall satisfaction with care was examined. Satisfaction data were collected from the federally mandated Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey for 4349 adult patients admitted to any surgical unit over an 18-month period. Patients' perceptions of pain control and staff's efforts to control pain were associated with their overall satisfaction scores. These perceptions varied widely among services and nursing units. Interestingly, patient satisfaction was more strongly correlated with the perception that caregivers did everything they could to control pain than with pain actually being well controlled. The odds of a patient being satisfied were 4.86 times greater if pain was controlled and 9.92 times greater if the staff performance was appropriate. Hospitals may improve their patients' satisfaction by focusing on improving the culture of pain management.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA. mhanna9@jhmi.edu
authors.forename: Marie N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Hanna
authors.forename: Marlís
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: González-Fernández
authors.forename: Ashlea D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Barrett
authors.forename: Kayode A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pronovost
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015142:Baltimore; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D059408:Pain Management / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D058748:Pain Perception; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013503:Surgery Department, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers