Patient Perceptions of Quality: Analyzing Patient Satisfaction Surveys

Healthcare facilities are entering an era of increased oversight and heightened expectations concerning both reduced costs and measureable quality. The US Affordable Care Act requires healthcare organizations to collect certain metrics, including patient assessments of quality, in order to monitor and improve the quality of healthcare. These metrics are used as a basis for graduated insurance reimbursements, and are available to consumers as an aid in selecting healthcare providers and insurance plans. The purpose of this paper is to provide healthcare providers with the analytic capabilities to better understand quality of care from the patient’s point of view. Results show that variables related to Access, Moving Through the Visit, Nurse/Assistant, Care Provider and Personal Issues significantly impact overall assessments of care quality. In addition, while gender and type of care provider do not appear to have an impact on overall patient satisfaction, significant differences do exist based on age group, specialty of the physician and clinic type.