Study On Inpatient Satisfaction And Its Determinants In A Tertiary Hospital

BackgroundAlong with the opening up of the medical service sector and rapid economic development, patients keep requesting more of medical services and the medical service industry is becoming more and more competitive in our country. Patient satisfaction has already been taken as an index of hospital management and evaluation. The evaluation of satisfaction of medical service quality has been widely implemented in recent years since inpatient satisfaction with medical service quality is one of the important indexes in the assessment of the quality of medical services. The forms of survey adopted are mainly questionnaires in major hospitals.Consequently, it has become an important issue for hospital management to research on how to take measures to boost patient satisfaction and expand market share. And it has become an indispensable element for a modern hospital to be competitive to stress and study patient satisfaction.By surveying the inpatient satisfaction of a tertiary hospital in Linyi and referring to domestic and international research, this project analyzed and evaluated the data of recent inpatient satisfaction survey of the hospital. The factors influencing inpatient satisfaction were analyzed to put forward reasonable suggestions for the hospital management and provide scientific evidence for decision making in the promotion of medical service quality of the hospital.ObjectivesTo analyze the factors influencing inpatient satisfaction and set up an index system for satisfaction evaluation in line with the reality of the hospital and reflecting patients’needs and expectations by surveying the inpatient satisfaction of a tertiary hospital in Linyi. And to propose reasonable suggestions for hospital management, optimize medical technology, improve medical service environment, elevate service quality, boost service awareness, serve patients better, promote humane management by hospital administrators, and strengthen hospital competitiveness through overall assessment of patient satisfaction status of the hospital.MethodsMulti-stage random sampling was used for inpatients respectively in the departments of internal medicine, surgery, gynecology&obstetrics, and pediatrics.600copies of questionnaire were distributed, with200copies each for the wards of internal medicine and surgery,100copies each for the wards of gynecology&obstetrics and pediatrics. Empirical research was performed on the600inpatient samples with the construction of a measurement scale of patient satisfaction. The questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part covers the basic statistic characteristics of patients. The second part is a patient satisfaction survey measured with A-E grading. The research utilized literature method, questionnaire method and statistical analysis method, employing Epidata software for data entry, and statistical software SPSS18.0and Excel for data analysis and processing.Main ResultsIn the survey, the inpatient satisfaction towards medical service attitude, medical technology level, medical facilities, doctor-patient communication, logistics service and medical expenses of the hospital exceeded80.0%. The satisfaction with therapeutic effect reached91.7%and the overall satisfaction with the hospital reached93.7%. It was found that patients’ sex and age did not affect patient satisfaction much, while the profession, monthly income, education level and the method of payment of medical expenses posed as the primary influencing factors of patient satisfaction. Conclusions and suggestionsThe inpatient satisfaction of the hospital was rather high, especially with therapeutic effect. The approval by inpatients of medical service attitude, medical technology level, medical expenses and doctor-patient communication make positive contributions to hospital satisfaction. The logistics service of hospital affects inpatient satisfaction with the hospital. Survey of inpatient satisfaction can notably promote the betterment of medical service quality, the improvement of hospital management benefit, and the enhancement of hospital competitiveness.