The impact of culture on perceptions of patient-physician satisfaction

One of the focal points of the present study was to gain further understanding about whether cultural differences among cancer patients influence the satisfaction of patients with their physicians. The study population comprised randomly selected ambulatory cancer patients at the Sharett Institute of Oncology. Of the 450 patients in the study, 200 were veteran Israelis and most of the other 250 patients were immigrants from the former Soviet Union who arrived in Israel during the past 4 years. Patients were asked to describe their physicians using an eight-item questionnaire, and then to describe their ideal physician using the same questionnaire. The discrepancy between the two descriptions--actual and ideal--represents patient satisfaction. Our findings show that satisfaction among the Russian patients was very high, with scarcely any discrepancy between actual and ideal physician. In the Israeli group, however, a substantial discrepancy was noted in all items. It can be concluded that the Israeli patients were far less satisfied with their physicians than were the Russian patients.