Factors Associated with Patient Satisfaction in a Pediatric Setting Based on a Newly Developed Survey Instrument
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Purpose: Patient’s satisfaction has been shown to play a major role in their perception of the overall quality of care they receive. In a pediatric setting, caregiver’s satisfaction acts as a proxy for patient’s satisfaction. While there are a limited number of survey instruments that are designed to assess patient satisfaction in a pediatric clinic setting, none have examined an academic pediatric setting. In this study, there were two goals: first, to design a survey instrument to measure patient satisfaction in an academic pediatric setting and collect data using that instrument; second, to measure associations between patient’s satisfaction and factors such as provider's ability to communicate effectively and receiving timely access to care. Methods: A paper-based survey instrument consisting of 44 questions was developed using a validated instrument for patient satisfaction as reference, and included additional questions pertinent to an academic setting. Data was gathered from 97 caregivers over the age of 18 years, through convenience sampling, at the UNT Health Science Center Health Pavilion Department of Pediatrics. Patient satisfaction was assessed using the question “Using any number from 0 to 10, where 0 is the worst provider possible and 10 is the best provider possible, what number would you use to rate this provider?”. The reliability of the instrument was measured by Cronbach’s alpha. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample. Logistic regression was used to model patient satisfaction, after converting it into a binary variable where satisfaction ≤ 8 was ‘low/medium satisfaction’ and [greater than] 8 was ‘high satisfaction’. Results: Cronbach’s alpha was 0.55. Median provider satisfaction was 10 (IQR=3). Controlling for other factors in the model, as provider communication score increased by 1 unit, the odds of being in the low/middle category decreased by 0.01 (p Conclusions: The low Cronbach’s alpha indicates that the instrument development requires further investigation and re-evaluation. The small sample size and missing data may have contributed to this lowered score. Based on study results, we conclude, with caution that patient satisfaction was significantly associated with provider communication and receiving timely access to care.