The Association Between Patient Satisfaction and Patient-Reported Health Outcomes

Although patient satisfaction is increasingly used to rate hospitals, it is unclear how patient satisfaction is associated with health outcomes. We sought to define the relationship of self-reported patient satisfaction and health outcomes.

Retrospective cross-sectional analysis using regression analyses and generalized linear modeling.

Utilizing the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Database (2010-2014), patients who had responses to survey questions related to satisfaction were identified.

Among the 9166 patients, representing 106 million patients, satisfaction was rated as optimal (28.2%), average (61.1%), and poor (10.7%). Main Outcome Measures: We sought to define the relationship of self-reported patient satisfaction and health outcomes.

Patients who were younger, male, black/African American, with Medicaid insurance, as well as patients with lower socioeconomic status were more likely to report poor satisfaction (all P < .001). In the adjusted model, physical health score was not associated with an increased odds of poor satisfaction (1.42 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.88-2.28); however, patients with a poor mental health score or ≥2 emergency department visits were more likely to report poor overall satisfaction (3.91, 95% CI: 2.34-6.5; 2.24, 95% CI: 1.48-3.38, respectively).

Poor satisfaction was associated with certain unmodifiable patient-level characteristics, as well as mental health scores. These data suggest that patient satisfaction is a complex metric that can be affected by more than provider performance.