Patients' voices on satisfaction: unheeded women and maltreated men?

To capture the differences in female and male patients' hospital experiences, this article discusses the gendered nature of 699 free-text comments given in a survey of patient satisfaction at a Norwegian university hospital. The comments were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively, and the impressions gained through the comments were then to a smaller extent compared with the patients' multiple choice questionnaire ticking. Female responders added free-text comments to their multiple-choice responses more often than male responders did. Male and female patients also drew attention to different aspects of what it was like to be hospitalized, and male and female patients also expressed themselves differently. The voices of the patients were mainly the voices of contextualizing experiences, reflecting differences in male and female patient's experiences and in the meaning the patients attached to their experiences. The rather clear gender differences in our data emphasizes the need for a gender-sensitive approach in the encounters between staff and patients as well as in the design of patient satisfaction research.