Patient satisfaction: the Australian patient perspective

Abstract

The literature reveals little Australian academic study of the phenomenon of patient satisfaction and identifies severalproblems in current research practice. A theoretical discussion about the phenomenon of 'patient satisfaction' is for themost part absent, the rigour in the methods applied is often dubious, a definition of patient satisfaction is not agreedand the patient experience is often not the focus of research. To address some of these issues inductive research wasconducted with Australian patients to explore what they considered important for patient satisfaction to exist. A seriesof 52 interviews were conducted with twenty elective surgery patients in an Australian teaching hospital. Patients wereinterviewed on admission to hospital, within one week of discharge from hospital and between six and eight weeksafter discharge. Research with patients identified 16 themes that were important to make a patient's hospital staysatisfactory. Qualitative data have provided a foundation to better understand what 'patient satisfaction' means in itseveryday use. Such an approach is faithful to the concerns and priorities of the patients who are the users of healthcare services.