Client satisfaction in a health maintenance organization: providers' perceptions compared to clients' reports

This study seeks to compare clients' reports of satisfaction/dissatisfaction with an HMO and its medical care program to providers' perceptions of client satisfaction. The main conclusion is that providers are fairly aware of medical care system attributes with which clients are highly satisfied and dissatisfied. Those with direct patient contact, especially physicians and nurses, are most accurate in their perceptions. Personnel without direct patient contact are about equally accurate in their perceptions of client satisfaction, though personnel without patient contact perceive relatively more dissatisfaction than clients report. Most approaches to medical care evaluation examine costs and efficiency and, more recently, the technical quality of care. Less attention has been given to the assessment of client satisfaction, and almost no attention has been given to what providers perceive as the assessment of clients. Clearly, HMOs' viability is determined largely by their ability to identify and correct major problems affecting their enrollments.