Predictors of Hospital Patient Satisfaction as Measured by HCAHPS: A Systematic Review

Because Medicare reimbursements are now, in part, based on patient satisfaction scores, hospitals are increasingly concerned about improving patient satisfaction. However, little is known about the different characteristics that are associated with higher patient satisfaction. This study was conducted to systematically review the patient satisfaction literature and to identify predictors of patient satisfaction based on measures from the HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) survey. We searched the PubMed and Scopus databases from January 2007 to February 2015 for relevant peer-reviewed studies. A total of 41 studies met our inclusion criteria and were categorized into three groups (levels) based on the types of predictors used in the study: patient (12 articles, 29.9%), hospital (29 articles, 70.1%), or market (4 articles, 9.7%) predictors. We present a narrative review of the included studies in which certain patient- and hospital-level predictors were consistently associated with higher patient satisfaction (e.g., patient perception of well-managed pain and not-for-profit status) or lower patient satisfaction (e.g., racial/ethnic minority, hospital's safety net status, metropolitan area). Moreover, several predictors had mixed relationships with patient satisfaction across studies (e.g., teaching status, number of beds). Finally, we found that only a small number of studies have examined the association between market-level predictors and patient satisfaction.