Measuring Patient Satisfaction In Healthcare

Patient satisfaction is an important and commonly used indicator for measuring the quality in health care.

Measuring patient satisfaction in healthcare.

The consumer assessment of healthcare providers and systems cahps surveys are standardized industry questionnaires used to assess patient satisfaction and experience at various points of care. Patient satisfaction affects clinical outcomes patient retention and medical malpractice claims. It affects the timely efficient and patient centered delivery of quality health care. The terms patient satisfaction and patient experience are often used interchangeably but they are not the same thing.

While some researchers focus on patient satisfaction with the quality and type of health care services received 7 10 others focus on people s satisfaction with the health system more generally. This article examines the advantages disadvantages and problems associated with nine different methods of measuring patient satisfaction with service quality. After all patient experience of care is a critical quality domain used to evaluate hospital performance under the 2016 cms hospital value based purchasing vbp program accounts for 25 percent of a hospital s vbp score and comes with the potential for a penalty or bonus. Hcahps is the survey used in hospital settings.

Hcahps measure patient satisfaction. However consumer satisfaction studies are challenged by the lack of a universally accepted definition or measure 1 6 and by a dual focus. Patient experience differs from patient satisfaction.