Patients' assessment of the importance of measures relevant for treatment in lumbar disc herniations and their satisfaction--a prospective study

Abstract

In modern health system hospital is integral part of patients treatment. The hospital competes with an ubiquitous medical supply of adjacent institutions and general doctors. As a part of the medical supply chain a hospital may not exist as an "island" itself. Necessity in health politics and economics leads to image and advertisement strategies for a long term survival of hospitals. An analysis of medical output in patients treatment will build the basis for future development and strategies. By a questionnaire 170 patients suffering from a lumbar disc herniation were asked before starting medical treatment about their expectations and at the end of hospitalisation about their contentment with their stay in hospital. The very high expectations in medical treatment and nursing were fulfilled by the clinical staff. Here all patients were much more content they expected priorly. But the patients valued a distinct deficit in contentment in the co-treatment by other clinical faculties of the hospital. The reason of these results were explained by big distances inside the hospital and long time waiting between medical examinations. Our results show that intensive care by physicians and nurses increase contentment of patients. An additional improvement of patients judgement about hospital services will be possible by introduction of a routine co-treatment of other medical faculties.