Hospitalized patients’ satisfaction with caregivers’ conduct and physical surroundings

The study examined the relative contribution of caregivers’ conduct and physical conditions of the hospital setting to patients’ global satisfaction with health care, while controlling for self-assessed health status. The study was performed in the Soroka Medical Center, which is the only inpatient facility for a population of 360,000 in southern Israel. Patients were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Inclusion criteria were patients over 17 years of age, fluency in Hebrew, and hospitalization in the internal medicine wards for 24 hours or more. The dependent variable was “global satisfaction.” The independent variables were “satisfaction with caregivers’ conduct,” “satisfaction with physical surroundings and conditions,” and “self-assessment of health.” The three independent variables accounted for 36.8% of the variation in patients’ satisfaction with care, of which 87% related to “satisfaction with caregivers’ conduct.” In conclusion, hospital patients value the caregivers’ conduct more than the physical environment. From the Department of Epidemiology and Evaluation of Health Services, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Soroka Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel The author is a Senior Lecturer of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.