Questioning patient satisfaction: An empirical investigation in two outpatient clinics

Although patient satisfaction is a commonly applied measure when evaluating health services, there are lingering doubts about its validity. This paper will examine the model of satisfaction which presumes that patients judge their level of satisfaction by comparing their experience of care with their prior expectations by reporting on an interview-based study of patients' views in a cardiology and respiratory medicine outpatient clinic. The findings of the study suggest that the widely used model of patient satisfaction provides only limited understanding of the way that patients evaluate their care. The paper identifies problems with the measurement of patient satisfaction, and encourages less structured approaches to obtaining patients' views. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd