Patient satisfaction--what's new?

The past decade has seen increased attention focused on patient satisfaction; however, there are no universally accepted means of measuring patient satisfaction. A review of recent studies reveals some interesting findings. Satisfaction has been shown to be related directly to patient expectations; however, intuitive physician judgments about patient expectations may not correlate with true expectations. Further, patient satisfaction may not correlate with the level of clinical outcome. Recent advances have changed our understanding of this complex field.