Satisfaction with emergency department service among non-English-speaking background patients.
OBJECTIVE
The present study aims to investigate non-English-speaking background (NESB) patients' satisfaction with hospital ED service and compare it with that of English-speaking background (ESB) patients.


METHODS
A cross-sectional survey was conducted at the ED of an adult tertiary referral hospital in Queensland, Australia. Patients assigned an Australasian Triage Scale score of 3, 4 or 5 were surveyed in the ED, before and after their ED service. Pearson χ(2) -test and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the differences between the ESB and NESB groups in terms of patient-reported satisfaction.


RESULTS
In total, 828 patients participated in the present study. Although the overall satisfaction with the service was high - 95.1% (ESB) and 90.5% (NESB) - the NESB patients who did not use an interpreter were less satisfied with their ED service than the ESB patients (odds ratio 0.5, 95% confidence interval 0.3-0.8, P = 0.013). The promptness of service received the lowest satisfaction rates (ESB 85.4% [82.4-88.0], NESB 74.5% [68.5-79.7], P < 0.001), whereas courtesy and friendliness received the highest satisfaction rates (ESB 98.8 [97.6-99.4], NESB 97.0 [93.9-98.5], P = 0.063). All participants reported the promptness of service (33.5%), quality and professional care (18.5%) and communication (17.6%) as the most important elements of ED service.


CONCLUSIONS
The NESB patients were significantly less satisfied than the ESB patients with the ED service. Use of an interpreter improved the NESB patients' level of satisfaction. Further research is required to examine what NESB patients' expectations of ED service are.
School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Ibrahim
I
Mahmoud
Xiang-Yu
XY
Hou
Kevin
K
Chu
Michele
M
Clark
Rob
R
Eley
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003144:Communication Barriers; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011793:Queensland; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014175:Translating; D055815:Young Adult
emergency department; immigrant; satisfaction