September 22, 2011

Patient Satisfaction

Health care provider and policymakers are increasingly using patient satisfaction measures to assess the performance of health care organizations (Hibbard and Jewett 1996; Zaslavsky et al. 2000, Cited in Cho, W.H. Lee, H. Kim, C. Lee, S. and Choi, K.S. 2004). International accreditation agencies, such as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and the National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA), have included satisfaction as a quality indicator (Fahad, F. A. 2005).



Patient opinions are important because dissatisfaction suggests opportunities for improvement. Patient satisfaction can lead to a higher rate of patient retention which affects customer loyalty (Nelson et al. 1992, Cited in Cho, W.H. Lee, H. Kim, C. Lee, S. and Choi, K.S. 2004).