Non-clinical factors and citizens’ satisfaction: A way to improve the quality of health systems

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ABSTRACT Citzens’ self-reported satisfaction is often employed to assess the quality of health services and systems and guide actions for improvement. Health providers and policymakers are increasingly interested in identifying factors that promote higher satisfaction with health systems. Using data from the Spanish Healthcare Barometer survey, this paper aims at analysing the relationship between non-clinical factors of responsiveness and overall satisfaction with the public Spanish National Health System. Specifically, the study examines whether better experiences with aspects such as doctor-patient communication, dignity, or prompt attention are relevant in improving overall satisfaction with the health system. Factors that contribute most to satisfaction are also identified. The methodology relies on probit-adapted ordinary least squares, a method that is increasingly employed in the most recent subjective well-being literature. The findings show that non-clinical factors are relevant in reporting higher overall satisfaction with the health system. Factors related to prompt attention and dignity contribute most to increasing satisfaction. As our readings suggest, this is the first study to present empirical evidence on the relevance of non-clinical factors of responsiveness in improving users’ experience with the whole Spanish health system. These results provide health policymakers with information to improve the quality of the system.