The need for another look at the patient in general practice satisfaction surveys

Although patient satisfaction research has looked at the aspects of care which patients are satisfied with and at which patients are satisfied with their care, few studies have looked at which patients are satisfied with which aspects of care. A retrospective analysis of data collected from 1599 patients attending 43 GPs was undertaken to examine the way that different patient characteristics influenced responses to a 31 item survey completed at the surgery after a consultation. Information on perceived distress [as measured by the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP)] was collected from patients prior to the consultation and further information about the patient and the consultation was recorded by the doctor after the consultation. Levels of satisfaction were high, with only seven of 31 items producing more than 5% of negative responses. These seven items covered whether the waiting time was too long, whether the doctor was relaxed, whether the doctor was in a hurry, whether there was anything else the patient would have liked to talk about had there been more time, whether the doctor had said or done anything to reduce the patient's worries, whether the doctor gave the feeling that the patient's opinions were important and whether there was anything about the consultation which disappointed the patient. Age, waiting time prior to the consultation, consultation length and positive scores on the six NHP dimensions of distress were all significantly associated with responses to one or more of these seven items. Patients experiencing pain and those with emotional distress were dissatisfied with different aspects of the consultation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)