Abstract
BackgroundIndicators describing results of care are widely explored in term of patient satisfaction (PS). Among factors explaining PS, human resources indicators have been studied in terms of burnout or job satisfaction among healthcare professionals. No research work has set out to explore the effect of absenteeism on PS scores. The objective of this study was to explore interaction between rate of absenteeism among nurses and PS results.MethodsFrance has taken part in a project named PATH (Performance Assessment Tool for Hospitals) of the World Health Organization, aiming to develop a tool for the assessment of hospital performance. In the first semester 2008, 25 volunteering short-stay hospitals (teaching, general and private) provide complete data on nurse short-absenteeism (periods of up to 7 consecutive days of sick leave) and on PS (a cross-sectional postal survey using a standardized validated French-language scale EQS-H exploring "quality of medical information" (MI) and "relationships with staff and daily routine" (RS)). A multi-level model was used to take into account of the hierarchical nature of the data.ResultsTwo thousand and sixty-five patients responded to the satisfaction questionnaire (participation rate: 40.9%). The mean age of respondents was 58 yrs (± 19), 41% were men. The mean duration of hospitalisation was 7.5 days (± 11.1). The mean absenteeism rate for nurses was 0.24% (± 0.14).All the PS scores were significantly and negatively correlated with rate of short-absenteeism among nurses (MI score: ρ = -0.55, p < 0.01), RS score ρ = -0.47, p = 0.02). The mixed model found a significant relationship between rate of absenteeism among nurses and PS scores (MI: p = 0.027; RS: p = 0.017).ConclusionResults obtained in this study show that short-term absenteeism among nurses seems to be significantly and negatively correlated with PS. Our findings are an invitation to deepen our understanding of the impact of human resources on PS and to develop more specific projects.
Highlights
Indicators describing results of care are widely explored in term of patient satisfaction (PS)
Organization (WHO) [2], or the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) health model [1,3], converge as to the main dimensions that should be taken into account, such as efficiency, clinical efficacy, safety, human resources and the patient-centered approach
Relationship between patient satisfaction and absenteeism among nurses Short-term absenteeism among nurses was significantly correlated with the number of hospital beds and with the type of facility
Summary
Indicators describing results of care are widely explored in term of patient satisfaction (PS). Organization (WHO) [2], or the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) health model [1,3], converge as to the main dimensions that should be taken into account, such as efficiency, clinical efficacy, safety, human resources and the patient-centered approach. The value of these models resides in their integrated approach, arising from the interdependence among the different dimensions [2]. Most health care organizations are able to regularly collect user experiences and numerous studies exploring patient needs and expectations and determinants of patient satisfaction have been conducted. Patient age, subjective health status and satisfaction with life in general are the main predictors of satisfaction results [5,6,7,8,9,10,11]
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