1. Katherine Karan
St. Josephs College BUS-471, Spring 2012
What Aspects Constitute Patient
Satisfaction In An Acute Care Medical
Setting?

2. Statement Of the Problem:
• What aspects constitute patient
satisfaction in an acute care medical
setting?

3. Purpose Of Study
• As a hospital administrator, an
important goal should be to run a
reputable and competitive facility.
• By pinpointing and improving the
aspects of care that are most important
to the patient being treated in an acute
care medical setting, the medical center
can increase its revenue and expect
higher patient turnover.

4. Literature Review Summary
• The Literature supports that an
important factor for a medical institution
to focus on is high patient satisfaction.
• There are many approaches that have
been taken to increase patient
satisfaction (see table below)

5. Institutions ways of Medical staffs ways of
increasing patient increasing patient
satisfaction satisfaction
Follow up phone call or mail Increase communication
to conduct a satisfaction between patient, physician
survey and staff
Increase staffs job Nurse/physician rounds
satisfaction
Highlighting positive patient Monitoring patients pain
comments on hospital web
site for other perspective
clients to see
Ensuring workplace equality Increase rounding on
is practiced and met patient
Safety standards
maintained

6. Methods
• Sample
• Measures
• Design
• Procedures

7. Sample
• Independent • Dependant
Variables – Patients that Variablesreceived in a
have already
-care patients
have received care in an acute medical setting. This care will
care medical facility focus on involvement of
patient in care, satisfaction of
the medical employees,
employees willingness to help
the patient, pain control and
comfort measures,
communication between staff
and patient, and safety
issues.

8. Population
• 18 years and older. The population must have
functioning cognitive ability and full
comprehension of the study. These people
meeting the criteria must also be willing to
participate. After the participants are willing be
a part of research a consent form will be
signed. The consent will outline the facts that
the participants information will remain
anonymous and that culture, race and
economic status have no bearing on the study.
No personal information including name,
address or income is to be asked or provided.
HIPPA compliance will be maintained
throughout the study.

9. Measures
• Hypothesis- There is a correlation
between the care received and a patient’s
willingness to recommend the medical
facility.
• Null Hypothesis- There is no
correlation to the care received by a patient in a
medical setting and the patients willingness to
utilize or recommend the medical facility in the
future.

10. Design
• The quantitative research method selected
appropriate for this research investigation is
the quasi-experimental method. This method is
appropriate for this research because the
subjects being used are from nonrandomized
groups. The study will be longitudinal and will
focus on observing and there will be no way in
manipulating the care that is given to the
patients. Under the longitudinal study a cohort
study would be appropriate because the focus
is on the population experiencing the same
event, being care received in a medical facility.

11. Procedures
• The sampling procedures to be used are the internal level response
format. By using this format patients can rank their responses to
questions asked by using a scale to shown the importance of a topic in
their opinions. The scale will be used on a 1-5 numeric rating where 1
would represent least satisfied and 5 will represent most satisfied. This
is an easy way to compare answers between all surveyed. An
unstructured response format will gain insight about patient’s personal
experiences and suggestions to improve their satisfaction. By
combining both survey methods together in a questionnaire, one will
be able to formulate areas that need to be focused on to maximize
patient satisfaction.

12. Analysis
• A prevalence test will be done to
determine the satisfaction of care a
patient received in the medical institution.
Ex: prevalence = number of patients
satisfied and willing to recommend the
medical facility / number of patients
surveyed. This will give the institution
baselines of what percentage of the
patients were satisfied with the care and
how much work on improvements needs
to be done.

13. Analysis
• A retrospective cohort study can be done to
measure the strength of the associations of the
dependant variables by the answers given by
the independent variable. This can be set up in
a line graph to have a visual of where a deficit
may lie. The x axis will be the independent
variable and the y axis will represent the
dependent variables. By using theses analysis
methods the researcher will be able to focus
on if there is indeed a deficit in the care given
to the patients directly relating to their
satisfaction and willingness to recommend or
utilize the facility in the future, or if no deficit is
currently present.

14. Limitations/Delimitations
Limitations Delimitations
• the willingness of the individuals • boundaries need to be set and
participating define what will not be pertinent
• individuals may not believe that there for research.
responses will be kept anonymous
• must insure that the medical staff
therefore they might answer how they
think the investigator would want them in the facility or dependant
to answer variables have no preexisting
• individual may feel that by giving knowledge of the research
negative information about the facility otherwise the care they give will
that there care could be compromised not be true to their everyday
in the future practice therefore making the
• Time feedback inaccurate
• is how many units in the medical
setting should be studied

15. Significance of Study
• The results that are expected to be found are that
by pinpointing and improving the aspects of care
that are most important to the patient being treated
in an acute care medical setting, the medical
center can increase its revenue and expect higher
patient turnover. The areas of care that are
expected to take prevalence in this study are the
involvement of patient in their own care,
satisfaction of the medical employees, employees
willingness to help the patient, pain control and
comfort measures, communication between staff
and patient, and safety issues. This research will
be beneficial for administrators of all medical
centers who have a goal of exceptional care and
high profit.