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Patient age, geographic location of treatment impact satisfaction with outpatient orthopedic procedures
Recently published data indicated non-modifiable factors, such as age and the geographic location where a patient is treated significantly influenced the patient’s satisfaction with an outpatient orthopedic procedure.
Researchers retrospectively reviewed the patient satisfaction scores for 12,177 academic, orthopedic, outpatient clinical encounters of 7,258 patients who completed the Press Ganey Medical Practice Survey between December 2010 and October 2013. The patient data collected included sex, age, status of employment, health insurance, zip code and orthopedic subspecialty involved.
Answers from the survey were scored 1 to 5 on the Likert scale and patients were grouped as either less satisfied or more satisfied. Using generalized estimating equation logistic regression analysis, researchers identified predictive factors for low patient satisfaction. They used a predictive model to calculate the probability of less satisfaction and interquartile ranges for age, sex, travel distance and orthopedic subspecialty.
Based on the findings, age was strongly correlated with patient satisfaction and younger patients were less satisfied. The adjusted ratio was 2.78 for patients aged 18 to 29 years compared with patients aged 80 years or older. Patient satisfaction also correlated with travel distance with patients living less than 50 miles from the clinic being less satisfied than patients living farther away. The adjusted ratio was 1.18 for distance of less than 50 miles vs. 50 miles or more.
The predictive model showed age, regardless of the age group, affected patient satisfaction ‒ by Monica Jaramillo
Disclosure: Abtahi reports no relevant financial disclosures.
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