Patient/Customer Satisfaction

For most health care organizations, the customer is the patient. Like other businesses, health care organizations are evaluated by many of the usual measures of customer satisfaction (e.g., convenience of location, ease of getting the appointment, waiting time, price, etc.). Unlike most businesses, health care organizations are also judged by patient outcomes. What the "customer" wants and what the "patient" needs may occasionally be in conflict, even though the "customer" and "patient" is the same person. This is one reason customer satisfaction for health care organizations can seem to be an elusive goal.

To prepare for this Discussion:

· Review this week's Learning Resources.

· Locate and read a scholarly article that identifies factors that influence patient/customer satisfaction in a health care setting.

Post a brief description of and a link to the scholarly article. Then, identify and discuss what you believe is the most important factor that influences patient/customer satisfaction positively and negatively in health care. Finally, justify why those factors are important and address how the article you cited supports or refutes your opinion.

Support your work with specific citations from this week's Learning Resources and/or additional sources as appropriate. Your citations must be in APA format.

Resources:

Article: Ford, R. C., Bach, S. A., & Fottler, M. D. (1997). Methods of measuring patient satisfaction in health care organizations. Health Care Management Review, 22(2), 74-89.

Article: Otani, K., Waterman, B., Faulkner, K. M., Boslaugh, S., Burroughs, T. E., & Dunagan, W. (2009). Patient satisfaction: Focusing on "excellent." Journal of Healthcare Management, 54(2), 93-103.