Luận án ts y học patient satisfaction a strategic tool for health services manag

Patient satisfaction: a strategic tool for health services management Thesis presented by Anna Maria Murante to The Class of Social Sciences for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Management, competitiveness and development Tutor: Prof.ssa Sabina Nuti Advisors: Prof. Brown and Prof. Renato Fiocca Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna A. 7 CHAPTER 1 – The theoretical framework .1 The patient role .2 Patient satisfaction: a complex concept .3 The patient satisfaction measurement .4 Patient experience: a new perspective for performance evaluation systems in health sector.

21 CHAPTER 2 - Tools and methods to measure patient experience for the multidimensional performance evaluation systems in the health sector.2 – The theoretical framework. 43 C) Inter-correlation analysis. 43 D) Overall evaluation and its dimensions. 49 CHAPTER 3 - The effects of institutional characteristics on inpatient satisfaction.3 – Data and Methodology.

59 Explanatory variables, patient level. 61 Explanatory variables, hospital level. 64 Multilevel model results .6 – Discussion and Conclusion. 72 CHAPTHER 4 - A marketing approach for creating patient oriented pathways in hospital services.1 – Introduction and Objectives.

77 Health care services. 83 Multivariate linear regression model .7 - Limitations and further research. 95 4 Acknowledgements This thesis is the result of the research work carried out in cooperation and with the support of the whole team of Laboratorio Management e Sanità of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa. In particular, I would like to thank: my supervisor, Professor Sabina Nuti, a “volcano of ideas”, for continuously stimulating me and posing challenging questions in our research activities; Chiara Seghieri for patiently guiding me through the fundamentals of statistics; and all my colleagues for facing everyday challenges together.

I wish to thank Professor Adalsteinn Brown for his precious suggestions and for the opportunity he gave me to carry out a part of the analyses described in this work in the Health System Strategy Division of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in Ontario. A sincere thank to Professor Renato Fiocca, for taking care of the students education and their future. I am grateful to him for devoting his valuable time to read my thesis and for his careful and wise advice. Furthermore, I am indebted to all citizens who accepted to be interviewed and provided us with a wealth of information on the quality of health services and to all professionals of Health Authorities who made the surveys possible.

This thesis would not have been possible without the support of all my family, and in particular without the precious example of my mum and dad who taught me to work hardly in order to achieve important goals. The greatest thanks are for Luigi, for his love and warm encouragements in any situation! 5 6 INTRODUCTION This doctoral thesis focuses on the role of patient satisfaction in health services management as a strategic measure of health organizations’ performance. Most of the literature contributions on patient satisfaction were developed in US and UK; however, in the last years also Italian researchers and health managers have increased the interest and attention for the patient perspective. In detail, this work mostly refers to the patient experience surveys systematically conducted in Tuscany Region and used to create indicators included in the Tuscan Performance Evaluation System.

Since 2004 this system, developed by Laboratorio Management e Sanità of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, has been monitoring the results achieved by Tuscan Health Authorities considering also indicators on patient satisfaction. In this no profit – based scenario, the patient satisfaction surveys are valuable data sources to improve patient health and service quality. To better meet the patients’ needs and to achieve the main goals of a public health care system, the determinants of patient satisfaction and their changes across organizations have to be investigated. Research questions Based on these premises, the three articles that constitute the main body of this thesis aim to respond to the three research questions (RQs) hereafter presented.

Which are the dimensions that can explain patient satisfaction’s concept? The complex nature of patient satisfaction’s concept implies that dimensions to be investigated are well identified considering the patient perspective. In fact, a critical aspect in the patient satisfaction’s measurement is that models and instruments sometimes reflect the providers’ perspective rather than the patients’ one (Calnan, 1988). Thus, in order to monitor patient satisfaction with a health service by using questionnaires it is not enough to identify the main aspects of care and to define questions related to them. On the opposite side, it is important to use appropriate and scientifically rigorous means to measure patient experience so that accurate and meaningful information is produced.

A common objection to patient satisfaction research is related to technical and methodological issues (Rubin, 1990; McDaniel and Nash,1990). In 1990s, when 7 patient satisfaction measures were increasingly used to monitor the performance of health services, Sitzia (1999) pointed out the poor attention to the validity and reliability properties of questionnaires adopted in previous studies. These properties explain the extent to which a questionnaire is really able to capture the construct it is supposed to measure (Streiner et al, 2008). When the questionnaire properties are not evaluated and methodological weaknesses exist, misleading results may be generated and erroneous signals may be sent out.

Thus, a rigorous methodology has to be ensured. On the basis of the above considerations, the first paper (Murante A., Strumenti e metodi per misurare la patient satisfaction nei sistemi multidimensionali di valutazione della performance in sanità, presented at AIES Conference, Bergamo, 2009) aims at analyzing the validity and reliability properties of a questionnaire used by the Regional Health Care Service (RHCS) of Liguria and then by the RHCS of Tuscany, Umbria, Val d’Aosta and Trento to measure citizens experience with primary care services. The validation process of the questionnaire allowed to identify the main dimensions that can explain the overall patient satisfaction with primary care. Which are the personal and organizational characteristics that better explain the variability of patient satisfaction? A large number of studies analyzed how the patients’ perception of health services’ quality is influenced by their expectations, socio-demographic characteristics and clinical needs (Westaway, 2003; Bruster et al., 1994; Sitzia and Wood, 1997).

Moreover, in recent years, the characteristics of the external environment have been also considered as additional factors influencing individual evaluation. Researchers mainly observed whether variations exist across different organizations (e. A combined analysis of both individual and contextual characteristics allows to take into account the main aspects influencing overall satisfaction. Furthermore, adjusting for these aspects, patients’ ratings can also be compared across organizations.

The second paper (Murante A., The effects of institutional characteristics on inpatient satisfaction. A multilevel analysis, proceeding) focuses on the multidimensionality of the health quality concept. As 8 pointed out by Donabedian (Donabedian, 1988) structural and organizational aspects, healthcare process and patient satisfaction have to be considered together according to a comprehensive approach. The paper describes the results obtained using a multilevel model in order to investigate: (i) which are the personal (level 1) and organizational (level 2) characteristics that more affect patients’ experience with Tuscan hospitals and (ii) how much of the overall variability is explained at each level.

Investigating the variation of satisfaction within and between hospitals and its origins provides valuable information for planning effective policies of quality improvement. In fact, depending on whether patient experience is more influenced by patient or hospital characteristics, different actions have to be defined and implemented. Which are the elements to be considered in order to create patient - oriented services? In the last years health systems changed the way of thinking and delivering care: patient became the centre of the overall care process and new organizational models were applied in order to provide patient-centered services. The publication Seeing the person in the patient (Goodrich and Cornwell, 2008) provides several definitions of the “patient-centered care” concept, of which the most complete and clear one identifies the following dimensions: “(i) compassion, empathy and responsiveness to needs, values and expressed preferences; (ii) co-ordination and integration; (iii) information, communication and education; (iv) physical comfort; (v) emotional support, relieving fear and anxiety; (vi) involvement of family and friends” (Institute of Medicine, 2001).

This definition is consistent with the responsiveness’s goal assigned to the international health systems by the World Health Organization. In fact, health services have to meet the clinical needs of population as well as to ensure respect for persons, prompt attention, quality of amenities, access to social support networks and choice of the provider. Based on these premises, the third paper (Murante A., A marketing approach for creating patient oriented pathways in hospital services, accepted at the 10th International Marketing Trends Conference, Paris, January 2011) aims at promoting marketing’s approaches and methods in order to orient health policies towards the actual needs of citizens. The study focuses on the elements that most affect the patient’s overall experience and the factors to be improved in order to create patient-centered hospital service.

The analysis highlights also the differences 9 existing among patients hospitalized in three different wards (medical, surgical and obstetrical, gynecological and pediatric). 10 REFERENCES – Introduction Brown A. (2008), Comparing patient reports about hospital care across a Canadian – US border, International Journal for quality in Health Care; Vol. Bruster S, Jarman B, Bosanquet N, Weston D, Erens R, Delblanco T.

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International Journal for Quality in Health, Vol. 12 CHAPTER 1 The theoretical framework Before proceeding with the complete presentation of the three research’s papers, this first chapter introduces an overview of patient satisfaction literature with a focus on: (i) the patient role; (ii) the patient satisfaction’s concept, its subjective nature and its determinants; (iii) the use of patient satisfaction measures as outcome and process indicators; (iv) the introduction of patient perspective in multidimensional systems for evaluating the performance of health organizations. All these issues are the basis of the patient experience and satisfaction research field and constitute the framework of this PhD thesis. The patient role Usually, words as patient, user and consumer are indistinctly used as synonyms, even though they differ for the nature of relationships between health professionals and citizens.

While the patient is a person who has an illness and comes to doctors and nurses asking for advice and treatment, the user may identify people who used, use or could use health care services. Instead, the consumer reminds us of a person who purchases goods and services for his needs or a person who consumes something (Herxheimer and Goodare, 1999).