Determinants of Patient Satisfaction with Urology Practice

Although patient satisfaction surveys will be used by CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) to determine reimbursement in physician offices within 2 years, there are no published data to our knowledge on what influences patient satisfaction with the urology office. Therefore, we evaluated which parameters had the greatest impact on a patient's likelihood to refer another patient to our practice.

We employed a national survey firm to mail patient satisfaction questionnaires consisting of 21 questions covering parameters on logistics, practice and physician interactions to a random subset of urology outpatients. Data on number of patients seen, wait time in clinic, survey response rate and likelihood to refer were also collected. Interrelations between survey parameters were analyzed using a Pearson product-moment correlation and Fisher's transformation.

During a 2-year period we received 58,932 responses to 211,679 surveys (27.8% response rate). Although logistical and staff parameters correlated positively with likelihood to refer, the strongest correlation was observed in physician parameters (r=0.947, p <0.01). Of physician parameters, patient confidence in physician correlated most strongly with likelihood to refer (r=0.976, p <0.01). Clinic wait time showed a relatively weak correlation to likelihood to refer (r= 0.500, p <0.01), while number of patients seen did not correlate to likelihood to refer (r=-0.090, p=0.40). Survey response correlated positively with likelihood to refer (r=0.593, p <0.01).

Our large series demonstrates that patient satisfaction in the urology office correlates most strongly with patient-physician interaction. Implementation of systematic, comprehensive patient satisfaction surveys is feasible for urology practices and can provide meaningful data to enhance the patient experience.