Abstract
BackgroundPatient satisfaction is of growing importance to providers of emergency medical services (EMS). Prior reports of patient satisfaction have frequently used resource-intensive telephone follow-up to assess satisfaction. We determine the feasibility of using a single mailing, anonymous postal survey methodology for collecting patient satisfaction data from a suburban EMS system.MethodsPatients transported between January 2001 and December 2004 were mailed a brief satisfaction questionnaire. The questionnaire was printed on a pre-addressed, postage paid postcard and consisted of five questions that used a five-point Likert scale to assess satisfaction with EMS personnel and services provided. Three open-ended questions assessed concerns, the most important service provided, and methods for improving service. Survey response rate was the primary outcome of interest. The Chi-square test was used to compare rates between years.ResultsThe survey required about 6 man hours and cost about $70 per month. Overall response rate was 32.0% (857/2764; 95CI 30.3% – 33.9%). During the first year, response rate was 42.6% (95CI 38.5% – 46.8%), but was significantly lower in subsequent years (29.0% in year 2, 30.8% in year 3, and 27.6% in year 4, p < 0.05). There were 847/851 respondents (99.5%) who were satisfied or very satisfied with their EMS experience. Three patients felt the service was adequate and one was very unsatisfied. Open-ended questions suggested that interpersonal communications were the single most important contributor to patient satisfaction. Patients also reported that response times and technical aspects of care were important to them.ConclusionPostal surveys for assessing patient satisfaction following EMS transport can achieve comparable response rates to similar surveys in other health care settings. Response rates did not decline after the second year of patient surveys, suggesting some stability after the initial year. Interpersonal communication was determined to be the single most important contributor to patient satisfaction.
Highlights
Patient satisfaction is of growing importance to providers of emergency medical services (EMS)
We hypothesized that we would obtain a similar response rate to that observed in the one prior postal survey (35% – 40%), and that this response rate remains stable over time. Design This was an observational study of response to a postal survey of patient satisfaction that was instituted as part of a quality improvement program in a local EMS system in 2001
Main results The characteristics of patients served by the EMS system are given in Table 1, stratified by year
Summary
Patient satisfaction is of growing importance to providers of emergency medical services (EMS). Objective information to assure the quality of care delivered by EMS systems is in demand by governmental agencies, insurance companies, and customers [1] Standard quality indicators such as response time and outcome data may not reflect everything that patients consider important. Previous reporting of patient satisfaction has involved large urban EMS systems [3,4] and hospital-based systems [5] While these reports highlight aspects of care with potential for improvement, the findings have limited generalizability to smaller systems within the United States. These studies of patient satisfaction have generally used a telephone survey approach with high resource requirements [3]. Insufficient work has been completed on this topic
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