How the Patient-Centered Behavior of Physicians and Nurses Influences Female Asian Patient Satisfaction

PURPOSES: Consistent with The Primary Provider Theory the purposes of this study were first to determine the effects of physician and nursing patient-centeredness on female Asian hospital patient satisfaction, likelihood to recommend, and ratings of care, and secondly, to determine whether the effects were stable across national random samples. METHODS: A three-factor multigroup structural equation modeling design was used with randomly selected national test and cross-validation samples of female Asian hospital patients, N₁=101 and N₂=134. Experiments conducted to test the hypothesized model’s trustworthiness included: goodness of fit, measurement invariance, and a competing model challenge. RESULTS: The hypothesized model fit providing evidence that the patient-centered behaviors of physicians and nurses consistently influenced female Asian patients’ satisfaction, likelihood to recommend the hospital, and ratings of care. Provider patient-centeredness explained 72% of female Asian hospital patients’ satisfaction. A standardized increase in physician patient-centeredness concomitantly increased female Asian patients’ satisfaction, likelihood to recommend, and ratings of care by .607, .552, and .559 standard units, while the like effects for nursing patient-centeredness were .747, .679 and .736. Importantly, these effects were stable (invariant) across both the test and cross-validation samples. DISCUSSION: The results provided evidence that physician and nursing patient-centeredness positively influence female Asian hospital patients’ satisfaction, likelihood to recommend, and ratings of care, all important indicators of quality. Provider behaviors that move towards rather than against Asian female patients’ needs positively influence female Asian patient outcomes. As such, patient-centeredness offers an alternative for improving quality and reducing disparities. The Primary Provider Theory and this investigation offer an evidence-based model for the measurement and improvement of female Asian patients’ satisfaction and other outcomes.