[Study of patient satisfaction when performing an ultrasound in Primary Care]

To analyse the level of patient satisfaction when undergoing a diagnostic ultrasound by a family doctor.

A cross-sectional descriptive observational study was conducted in two health centres in Madrid, between December 2015 and March 2016. An anonymous questionnaire was used, consisting of two parts: one in-house prepared that included the socio-demographic variables, and an adaptation to the study objectives of the "survey of satisfaction of users of health centres" included in the document "Evaluation of the satisfaction of users of public health care services of the Community of Madrid" by the General Directorate of Coordination for Citizen Services and Humanisation of Health Care, Ministry of Health of Madrid, 2014.

Patients on whom their family doctor performed an ultrasound for diagnostic purposes. Patients completed the questionnaire after 15 to 30 days, thus minimising the authority bias. The sample was obtained by consecutive non-probabilistic sampling.

The level of "satisfied-very satisfied" reached 95%, with the approval of the family doctor compared with the hospital specialist performing the ultrasound. The health centre would be chosen by 92% if they had to undergo an ultrasound for a second time, 96% would recommend it to third parties, and 95% considered that their expectations were met.

The performance of a diagnostic ultrasound by family doctors was evaluated with a high level of satisfaction by the patients. There are no comparable studies in the Primary Care field, and multicentre studies would be needed in order to generalise the results obtained.