Patient satisfaction: does surgical volume matter?

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Patient Experience Research
• Surgical Quality Improvement

Background:

• Patient satisfaction is increasingly important for performance metrics and public reporting.
• Understanding the link between hospital structure, surgical outcomes, and patient satisfaction is crucial.
• Current research has limited insight into how hospital factors influence patient satisfaction with their hospital experience.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between hospital surgical volume, postoperative outcomes, and overall patient satisfaction.
• To determine whether surgical volume or postoperative outcomes are stronger predictors of patient satisfaction.
• To analyze patient satisfaction across different domains of the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 171 hospitals from the University HealthSystem Consortium database (2011-2012).
• Inclusion of general surgery patients and pairing hospital data with HCAHPS results.
• Statistical analysis using Chi square and binary logistic regression to assess predictors of high patient satisfaction.

Main Results:

• High surgical volume was a stronger predictor of overall patient satisfaction than complications, readmissions, or mortality.
• Surgical volume had less impact on satisfaction with specific HCAHPS domains.
• Postoperative outcomes were more predictive of satisfaction with providers, hospital experience, and environment.

Conclusions:

• Overall patient satisfaction is more influenced by high surgical volume than by postoperative outcomes.
• Surgical volume's predictive power for satisfaction varies across different HCAHPS domains.
• Further refinement of patient surveys is needed to effectively identify high-quality, safe healthcare facilities.