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Keywords patient satisfaction; customer satisfaction; satisfaction theory; conceptualisation; expectations; systematic review; rAMeSeS guideline; narrative literature review
Abstract
Aim: Patient satisfaction concept is widely measured due to its appropriateness to health service; however, evidence suggests that it is a poorly developed concept. This article is a first part of a two-part series of research with a goal to review a current conceptual framework of patient satisfaction and to bring the concept for further operationalisation procedures. The current article aimed to review a theoretical framework that helps the next article to review determinants of patient satisfaction for designing a measurement system.
Method: The study used a systematic review method, meta-narrative review, based on the RAMESES guideline with the phases of screening evidence, appraisal evidence, data extraction and synthesis. Patient satisfaction theoretical articles were searched on the two databases MEDLINE and CINAHL. Inclusion criteria were articles published between 1980 and 2014, and English language papers only. There were 36 articles selected for the synthesis.
Results: Results showed that most of the patient satisfaction theories and formulations are based on marketing theories and defined as how well health service fulfils patient expectations. However, review demonstrated that a relationship between expectation and satisfaction is unclear and the concept expectation itself is not distinctly theorised as well.
Conclusions: Researchers brought satisfaction theories from other fields to the current healthcare literature without much adaptation. Thus, there is a need to attempt to define the patient satisfaction concept from other perspectives or to learn how patients evaluate the care rather than struggling to describe it by consumerist theories.
IntroductIon
Patient satisfaction has been a popular term in health service in the last few decades owing to its appropriateness.1-3 evaluating patient satisfaction with health services allow some positive changes in the quality of healthcare delivery4 by identifying problems. A reflection of patients' views in the functioning of a health service improves service management, and health professionals' behaviours as determining proper policies and management procedures and prioritising resource allocations and training needs.2,5 A higher level of patient satisfaction results in patients' decisions to choose a health service, to have an intention to return to a particular hospital, or to follow up doctor's appointments or a recommended treatment option.4,6,7
National and international organisations for health...