Patient satisfaction

From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium

In health care, patient satisfaction is "the degree to which the individual regards the health care service or product or the manner in which it is delivered by the provider as useful, effective, or beneficial."^[1]

This is a component of the physician-patient relationship. However, in health care delivery, patient satisfaction may conflict with quality of care. For example, in low back pain patients may have more satisfaction with increased use of diagnostic tests even though the diagnostic tests do not improve health care delivery.^[2] In addition, physicians, who work in settings that use incentives based on patient satisfaction are more likely to order diagnostic imaging.^[3]

References

1. ↑ Anonymous, (2009) Patient satisfaction (English). Medical Subject Headings. U.S. National Library of Medicine.
2. ↑ Deyo, Richard A. (2009-05-25). Imaging Idolatry: The Uneasy Intersection of Patient Satisfaction, Quality of Care, and Overuse. Arch Intern Med 169 (10): 921-923. DOI:10.1001/archinternmed.2009.124. Retrieved on 2009-05-26.
3. ↑ Pham, Hoangmai H.; Bruce E. Landon, James D. Reschovsky, Beny Wu, Deborah Schrag (2009-05-25). Rapidity and Modality of Imaging for Acute Low Back Pain in Elderly Patients. Arch Intern Med 169 (10): 972-981. DOI:10.1001/archinternmed.2009.78. Retrieved on 2009-05-26.