Predictors of Inpatient Satisfaction with Quality Services at an Armed Forces General Hospital in Taiwan

Hsu, Jui-Wen

Wednesday, 1 August 2012: 10:50 AM

Jui-Wen Hsu, BA
School of Management, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Chia-Chan Kao, RN, PhD
Department of Healthcare Administration, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Jeremy C. Ying, PhD
Department of healthcare Administration, I-Shou University, Kaoshiung, Taiwan
Yu-Hua Lin, PhD
I-Shou University, Department of Nursing, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to acknowledge the relationship between each of the three dimensions (hospital environment, physician services, and nursing services) and inpatient satisfaction.

Learning Objective 2: The learner will gain more insight into the significance of nursing services in regard to inpatient satisfaction

Purpose: Patient satisfaction is acknowledged as an indicator. of quality of care. Previous studies demonstrated that factors affecting patient satisfaction focused on outpatients at primary care or clinic settings. The objectives of the study were to identify factors contribute to inpatients satisfaction and to enhance evidence to the sparse literature on this issue.

Methods: A total of 353 respondents were recruited from an Armed Forces General Hospital in Southern Taiwan within the month of October, 2011. Three hundred respondents completed a 33-item questionnaire, which includes respondent’s characteristics (7 items) and patient satisfaction survey (26 items). An explanatory factor analysis determined three constructs (perceptions of medical environment, physician services, and nursing services) of the patient satisfaction survey. A hierarchical regress model was used to identify factors affecting patient satisfaction.

Results: Respondents who were females (β= 2.45, p < .001) and hospitalized at medical wards (vs. surgical wards) were predictors that explained a total of 10.0% of variance in the overall patient satisfaction with medical services. Perceptions of medical environment (β= 4.17, p < .001), physician services (β= 0.03, p > .05), and nursing services (β= 4.59, p < .001) were other predictors that explained a total of 63% of variance in the overall patient satisfaction in medical services after controlling for respondents’ characteristics.

Conclusion: This study indicates that inpatient satisfaction with care was influenced by nursing services and hospital environment after controlling for patient characteristics.In order to provide high quality of services, healthcare managers may enhance nurses’ competency, quality of care, provision of information, and positive attitude towards care through education training system. In addition, they need to monitor environment since the perceptions of hospital environment is one of predictors of inpatient satisfaction.

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