A Study Of Patient Satisfaction Assessment Tools For A Class-three Hospital In Shanghai

BackgroundPatient satisfaction is a comprehensive reflection of the medical environment, medical procedure, treatment outcomes, and service attitude and so on. The New Health Reformation requires improving the public welfare of public hospitals. Patient satisfaction is an important basis for evaluation of the hospital in terms of public welfare. Patient satisfaction can not only reflect a hospital’s medical service, management and so on, but is also a signpost advising a hospital on how to improve attitude of service and quality of healthcare. Therefore, research into patient satisfaction has become an important component of modern hospital management.However, the present method of patient satisfaction evaluation in public hospitals fails to meet the scientific and professional requirement of hospital management.PurposeThe purpose of this study is to develop a tool for patient satisfaction assessment, which will be used in a class-three hospital in Shanghai. This study is to find out the main problems of public hospitals in Shanghai in term of patient satisfaction, set up the out-patient satisfaction and in-patient satisfaction index, determine the weight of the index based on its importance, and assess patient satisfaction assessment with the tool.Contents and MethodsBased on literature review, interview with experts, questionnaire survey, and empirical research, the study analyses the present situation of public hospitals in Shanghai, finds out the main problems in the patient satisfaction evaluation. Results and SuggestionsThe main problems found in public hospitals in Shanghai in terms of patient satisfaction are as follows.The first one is the lack of an authority and unified patient satisfaction index system. The patient satisfaction assessment tools are often used for many years in public hospitals, and cannot reflect the current situation of medical service.The second is that the hospital patient satisfaction indexes lay more emphasis on such "health factors" as medical quality, service attitude, medical environment, and medical treatment processes than "patient factors" such as the characteristics of different patient groups.Thirdly, the methods used to assess patient satisfaction include evaluation period, research staff and weight setting. The lack of scientific soundness of the methods has reduced the patient satisfaction evaluation credibility.The study has set up a patient satisfaction evaluation tool for a class-three hospital in Shanghai, which includes the basic situation of patients, the patient satisfaction indexes and the patient suggestions or opinions.The basic situation of patients includes the patient’s age, gender, region, identity, clinical department etc.The patient satisfaction indexes include basic indexes and additional indexes. The indexes are divided into first level indicators and second level indicators. The outpatient scale consists of 8 first level indexes, including window service, medical services, inspection services, medical environment, patient management, privacy protection, medical ethics and general evaluation. The outpatient scale consists of 10 first level indexes. The basic indexes include the admission process, medical services, logistics services, hospital environment, and inspection service, protection of privacy, medical ethics and general evaluation. The additional indexes include operation treatment and intensive care.The attitudes of the medical staff and patients towards the indexes were first investigated and then statistical methods were employed to determine the weight of the each index.An evaluation of the patient satisfaction was carried out using the new scale. Results show that the new scale is both reliable and valid. On the other hand, the result of the patient satisfaction evaluation by means of the new assessment tool proves to be consistent with the general feeling about the medical services.