"What Determines Patient Experience?Exploring Patient, Clinical Staff, and Management Perspectives"

Abstract

Hospitals are increasingly concerned with enhancing the patient experience with care given that Medicare reimbursements are now tied to patient satisfaction. A patient’s experience may be influenced by several factors (e.g. integration of care, technical aspects of care), which are ranked differently in importance by clinicians and patients. Strategies designed to improve patient experience can be informed by research that examines the determinants of the patient experience from the perspective of multiple healthcare team members. We used focus groups to analyze determinants of the overall patient experience from the perspectives of surgical patients, family members, physicians, nurses, and hospital managers at one acute care for-profit hospital located in a Western state. Content generated in the focus groups was analyzed to determine how frequently patient experience determinates were discussed and how positive, negative, or neutral the discussion involving each determinate was. The study’s findings suggest that patients and members of the health care team have similar views about what constitute the most important factors in the patient experience; namely, Interdisciplinary Relationships, Technical Infrastructure, and Staffing. Results of this study will be used to improve care in this facility and can inform the development of initiatives aimed at improving patient experience elsewhere.