Patient satisfaction and research-related problems (Part 2). Is triangulation the answer?

The article consists of two parts, the first of which examined the description of patient satisfaction by means of a questionnaire and the problems related to it. The aim of this second part is to complement the topic by explicating patient satisfaction research using a triangulative approach.

Patient satisfaction has been the object of interest in health care for some time, and is now increasingly used as the basis for quality management and improvement. At the same time, the methods used have been criticised. As it was shown in the first part of this article, traditional questionnaires contain many problems which are difficult to solve in a satisfactory way, for example, by using different methods of analysis.

The data were collected from the patients of three different hospital wards using an interview (n = 30). The interview themes corresponded to the classification of a questionnaire employed at the same time. The interview material was analysed using content analysis, whereas satisfaction is investigated using a triangulative approach.

The findings confirm that the interview supplements the questionnaire as a data collection method, but that is also produces overlapping information. The interviews gave deeper information on the patients' experiences and feelings. Triangulative examination made it possible to show factors influencing the reliability of the study.

The advantage of a triangulative approach seems to be that it provides a fairly accurate description of patient satisfaction. However, the problem of this method is that it doubles the amount of work needed and is slow to use which is worth considering as patient satisfaction should be followed on a regular basis and the results reported without delay. In spite of these problems, patient satisfaction surveys are important, since information provided by them is needed as basis for quality management, quality improvement and clinical supervision.