Avtor/Urednik		Kersnik, Janko
Naslov		Postal survey of patients' satisfaction with general practice after changing their personal general practitioner
Tip		članek
Vir		J Clin Gov
Vol. in št.		Letnik 7, št. 3
Leto izdaje		1999
Obseg		str. 138-42
Jezik		eng
Abstrakt		Background: Patients are now recognised as important partners in assessing quality of care and should be enabled to express their views and needs. Free choice of a general practitioner and the right to change the general practitioner empowers patients to participate in quality improvement processes. Aim: To examine the use of the form for reporting changing the doctor to health care authorities as a surrogate measure for quality of care in general practice setting. Method: Postal survey of the patients who changed their personal doctor in the years 1995 to 1996 identified from the register of the health care district Kranj in Slovenia. A random sample of 294 patients from the database of 1321 patients who changed their doctor in the observed period. We used a translation of the satisfaction questionnaire developed in UK. Results: 115 (39.1%) questionnaires were returned. 90 (30.6%) were returned completed and included in the final analysis. The patients who changed doctor because of discordance with their general practitioner or his/her practive nurse reported lower levels of satisfaction with: the professional aspect of care 45.1 versus 63.5 (P<0.001), depth of the relationship (P<0.001), 41.4 verusus 58.5, medical care 40.4 versus 56.2 (P=0.003), and lower levels of general satisfaction with the provider 40.6 versus 63.5 (P<0.001) and the surgery 50.3 versus 61.1 (P<0.001), but did not report significant differences in satisfaction with perceived time 32.7 versus 43.0, accessibility 59.2 versus 60.8, availability 39.6 versus 49.6 and continuity of care 74.6 versus 74.6. Concluisons: Dissatisfaction with defined aspects of care were shown to play a cosiderable role in patients' decisions to change their doctors. The form for changing the doctor should include specific questions about the reason to change and should be completed in every case. (Abstract truncated at 2000 characters).
Deskriptorji		FAMILY PRACTICE PHYSICIAN-PATIENT RELATIONS PRIMARY HEALTH CARE PATIENT SATISFACTION QUESTIONNAIRES PATIENT DROPOUTS QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE