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Race/ethnicity and patient satisfaction

2004; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 19; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30415.x

1525-1497

Bonald A. Barr,

Healthcare Policy and Management

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether an established patient satisfaction scale commonly used in the primary care setting is sufficiently sensitive to identify racial/ethnic differences in satisfaction that may exist; to compare a composite indicator of overall patient satisfaction with a 4-item satisfaction scale that measures only the quality of the direct physician-patient interaction. DESIGN: Real-time survey of patients during a primary care office visit. SETTING: Private medical offices in a generally affluent area of northern California. PARTICIPANTS: Five hundred thirty-seven primary care patients selected at random from those entering a medical office. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patient satisfaction using 1) a composite, 9-item satisfaction scale (VSQ-9); and 2) a 4-item subset of that scale that measures only satisfaction with direct physician care. RESULTS: The 9-item, composite scale identified no significant difference in patient satisfaction between white and non-white patients, after controlling for patient demographics and other aspects of the visit. The 4-item, physician-specific scale indicated that nonwhite patients were less satisfied than white patients with their direct interaction with the physicians included in the study (P ≤ .01). CONCLUSIONS: Measurements of patient satisfaction that use multi-item, composite indicators should also include focused comparisons of satisfaction directly with the care provided by the physician. In measurements of patient satisfaction, patient race/ethnicity should be included as an explanatory variable. The results also confirm earlier findings that factors external to the direct physician-patient interaction can have substantial effects on patients' perceptions of that interaction.