The Relationship between Patient Characteristics and Satisfaction with Hospital Care

환자특성에 따른 의료이용에 대한 환자만족도 비교

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between patient characteristics and patient satisfaction. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in an acute care hospital. The subjects were 317 patients discharged from general medical and surgical nursing care units during September, 2005. Patient satisfaction was measured using the short-form satisfaction scale of Hwang and Park(2001). Additional information about patient characteristics, including general demographics and health care utilization variables, was collected from the hospital information systems. Multiple regression analysis was performed to determine patient characteristics influencing patient satisfaction. Results: Patients were satisfied with hospital care with an average of 4.10 on a five-point Likert scale. Patient characteristics explained 13.5% of the variance of patient satisfaction. The significant factors influencing patient satisfaction were patients' age and perceived health status. There was no significant relationship between structural variables and patient satisfaction. Conclusion: This study showed that patients' characteristics were significant factors explaining patient satisfaction. Therefore, these characteristics should be adjusted in reporting patient satisfaction as an indicator for hospital-level or department-level rating.