Key Determinants of Patient Satisfaction in the Ambulatory Pediatric General Surgery Setting

Karen B. Lu, Charles D. Vinocur, James F. Burrows and Paul Rosen

Department of Surgery, University of Central Florida College of Medicine, USA
Department of Surgery, Nemours Alfred I. du Pont Hospital for Children Wilmington, USA

^*Correspondance to: Karen B. Lu 

 PDF  Full Text DOI: 10.25107/2474-1647.1324

Abstract

Background: Patient satisfaction is a key driver in provider and hospital recommendations. Although hospitals have implemented methods to measure patient satisfaction, many struggle to identify the factors that influence the overall patient experience. This problem is even more significant in the setting of specialty practices, such as in outpatient pediatric general surgery clinic. While there has been some literature regarding patient satisfaction in surgical settings, the focus has been directed towards more clinical measures than management measures. This study analyzed the effects of access to care, facility parameters, as well as staff and care provider interactions in outpatient pediatric general surgery clinic. We hypothesized that in an ambulatory pediatric general surgery setting, the patient-physician relationship, indicated by patients’ likelihood to recommend the care provider and patients’ confidence in the care provider would be the driving factor in overall patient experience.Study
Design: Patient satisfaction surveys were collected over a 3-year period by Press-Ganey Inc. Surveys were collected from caregivers of patients (age 0-21) who had visited an ambulatory pediatric general surgeon at a pediatric academic health system. Patients were seen across 2 states (DE and FL). The survey results were then translated into percentages of respondents who answered ‘5’ or ‘Very Good’ on a 5 point Likert scale. Percentages were averaged on a monthly basis, resulting in 36 data points. The Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation (r) was calculated based on these monthly percentages in correlation with the ‘Likelihood to Recommend the Practice’ (LTR).Results: 1,285 families responded to the survey. The top three variables that were most predictive of a family’s likelihood to recommend the practice were ‘Likelihood to Recommend the Care Provider’ (r = 0.798), ‘Confidence in Care Provider’ (r = 0.767), how well the ‘Staff Worked Together’ (r = 0.758).Conclusion: The results indicate that patients highly value not only interactions with surgeons but also appreciate the cohesiveness of the entire surgical care team. Emphasis on the patient-surgeon interaction and teamwork of the clinical staff will drive overall patient experience in the pediatric general surgery ambulatory setting.

Keywords

Patient satisfaction; Patient experience; Physician-patient relationship; Surgery; Pediatric; Outpatient

Cite the article

Lu KB, Vinocur CD, Burrows JF, Rosen P. Key Determinants of Patient Satisfaction in the Ambulatory Pediatric General Surgery Setting. Clin Surg. 2017; 2: 1324.