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Patient satisfaction as an outcome indicator of pain management during labor and delivery
D E Heitman1, S W Birdwell, D L Bennett
1Mount Carmel Medical Center, Columbus, OH, USA.
Increased emphasis is being placed on using various indicators to assess the quality of health care services. The purpose of this study was to assess the use of patient satisfaction in evaluating the pain management of patients admitted for childbirth. Three hundred eighty-nine patients who were admitted to the labor and delivery unit were asked to evaluate the technical and interpersonal aspects of the pain management process. One hundred seventy-seven patients (45.5%) responded to the questionnaire. The results showed that the aspects that received the lowest level of satisfaction were: 1) the patient's role in the decision of preferred type of pain medication; and 2) the use of a different medication after informing the health care professional that the original medication was not relieving their pain. No relationship was found between satisfaction and pain. This indicated that satisfaction was based on the patient's reaction to aspects of the service experience, and was not dependent on the type or intensity of pain experienced.
Increased emphasis is being placed on using various indicators to assess the quality of health care services. The purpose of this study was to assess the use of patient satisfaction in evaluating the pain management of patients admitted for childbirth. Three hundred eighty-nine patients who were admitted to the labor and delivery unit were asked to evaluate the technical and interpersonal aspects of the pain management process. One hundred seventy-seven patients (45.5%) responded to the questionnaire. The results showed that the aspects that received the lowest level of satisfaction were: 1) the patient's role in the decision of preferred type of pain medication; and 2) the use of a different medication after informing the health care professional that the original medication was not relieving their pain. No relationship was found between satisfaction and pain. This indicated that satisfaction was based on the patient's reaction to aspects of the service experience, and was not dependent on the type or intensity of pain experienced.