Survey of patient satisfaction with ambulatory services at 136 hospitals in China

Abstract

Objective To investigate outpatient satisfaction at 136 tertiary hospitals in China and to make policy suggestions for improving ambulatory service. Methods Onsite questionnaire survey was used by third-party investigators to interview over 200 outpatients selected with convenience sampling from each of the 136 tertiary hospitals of 31 provinces in China, with 27 475 valid questionnaires recovered. Results The overall outpatient satisfaction score was 86.4(95% CI 85.4-87.4). Patients were less satisfied with the dimension of medical service resources allocation and process . Outpatient satisfaction was found with regional and institutional distribution differences.Medical insurance reimbursement level and medical cost are negatively correlated with the overall outpatient satisfaction.Medical behavior and doctor-patient relationship are positively correlated with the overall outpatient satisfaction. Conclusions Improving medical care resource allocation and process efficiency should focus on optimizing medical resources allocation and process efficiency.Higher outpatient satisfaction comes along with better medical insurance security, humanistic physician behavior and more harmonious relationship between doctors and patients. Key words: Healthcare Improvement Initiative; Patient; Ambulatory service; Satisfaction; Investigation