The impact of office characteristics on satisfaction with medical care: a "before and after" analysis

A great deal of research has examined the impact that tangible cues can play in influencing patients' satisfaction with their physician. Because most people are not able to assess the technical expertise of their doctor, they often rely on tangible "surrogates" as standards of assessment for what is essentially an intangible product. While the research to date has helped us better understand the nature of this problem, it has often been characterized by some important design flaws. This paper reports on the results of a recent study that assessed patient satisfaction with a physician through the tangible cue of physical (office) surroundings. We sampled two sets of patients: one set prior to the doctor's move to newer facilities and the other after the relocation. Our findings offer mixed support for the hypothesis that physical cues influence attitudes toward and satisfaction with the medical care we receive.