Elsevier

The Journal of Hand Surgery

Volume 41, Issue 2, February 2016, Pages 257-262.e4
The Journal of Hand Surgery

Scientific article
Patient Satisfaction and its Relation to Perceived Visit Duration With a Hand Surgeon

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhsa.2015.11.015Get rights and content

Purpose

To determine whether patient perception of time spent with a hand surgeon relates to patient satisfaction after a single new-patient office visit.

Methods

Prior to each visit, 112 consecutive new patients predicted how much time they expected to spend with the surgeon. Following the visit, patients were asked to estimate the time spent with the surgeon, indicate whether the surgeon appeared rushed, and rate their overall satisfaction with the surgeon. Wait time and actual visit duration were measured. Patients also completed a sociodemographic survey, the Consultation and Relational Empathy Measure, the Newest Vital Sign Health Literacy test, and 3 Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System–based questionnaires: Upper Extremity Function, Pain Interference, and Depression. Multivariable logistic and linear regression models were used to determine predictors of patient satisfaction, patient-perceived surgeon rush, and high previsit expectations of visit duration.

Results

Patient satisfaction was not associated with perceived visit duration but did correlate strongly with patient-rated surgeon empathy and symptoms of depression. Neither visit duration nor previsit expectations of visit length were determinants of patient-perceived surgeon rush. Only surgeon empathy was associated. Less-educated patients anticipated needing more time with the surgeon.

Conclusions

Patient satisfaction with the surgeon and with the time spent during the office visit was primarily linked to surgeon empathy rather than to visit duration or previsit expectation of visit length. Efforts to make hand surgery office visits more patient-centered should focus on improving dialogue quality, and not necessarily on making visits longer.

Type of study/level of evidence

Prognostic II.

Section snippets

Design

Upon approval of our institutional review board, 119 new patients visiting the ambulatory offices of 5 attending orthopedic hand surgeons, 4 of whom are authors of this article (C.S.M., J.B.J., N.C.C., D.R.), were invited to participate in this prospective cross-sectional study. Inclusion criteria comprised patients who were 18 years old or older, fluent and literate in English, and capable of giving informed consent. Patients who had previously seen the attending surgeon they had an

Patient satisfaction

Patient satisfaction was not associated with actual visit duration (r = –0.010; P = .92) or patient-perceived visit duration (r = 0.12; P = .21; Fig. 1). After controlling for potential confounding effects in multivariable logistic regression, factors independently associated with patient dissatisfaction included greater symptoms of depression (OR 1.1; 95% CI 1.0–1.2; P = .009) and lower patient-rated surgeon empathy (OR 0.83; 95% CI 0.75–0.90; P < .001; Table 1). Using multiple linear

Discussion

Patient-perceived visit duration was not significantly associated with patient satisfaction. Our results suggest that, if a relationship between perception of longer visits and patient satisfaction exists in hand surgery, it is likely to be less concerning than that previously reported in the primary care setting.8, 28 In addition, no association was found between actual visit duration and patient satisfaction, corroborating prior results from other specialty-care studies.9, 10 Patient-rated

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