Patient satisfaction: a customer service approach

In health care, as in any service business, monitoring quality is an important component. Patient satisfaction, despite its measurement difficulties, is an excellent gauge of the institution's ability to delivery quality service. As part of quality improvement activities, the Division of Neurosciences at the Toronto Hospital measured patient satisfaction on various validated dimensions, then attempted to identify which components of service provision were key in determining patients' overall levels of perceived satisfaction with care. Results indicated that much of perceived quality and satisfaction was explained by the dimension of care which included prompt response to needs, organization, efficiency of care and communication. The authors recommend focusing improvement efforts on activities with the greatest potential to influence patient satisfaction.