Research of factors that affect satisfaction and satisfaction levels of patients who were admitted to emergency department

SUMMARY Research of Factors That Affect Satisfaction and Satisfaction Levels of Patients Who Were Admitted to Emergency Deparment Recently, patient satisfaction has become an important measure of health system quality. Under these circumstances, importance of patient satisfaction is very clear. The aim of this study was to verify patients' satisfaction and to identify factors that affect overall satisfaction of patients who were admitted to the emergency department. This prospective and defining study has been approved by the medical faculty's ethical board. The study was performed between 01.10.2004 and 30.06.2005. Three hundred and fourty one patients who could communicate well and older than 14 years old and who admitted to the emergency department included in this study. Demographic variables, social security status, method of arrival, number of admission, cause of admission, disposition, waiting times and total lenght of stay of patients at emergency department has written down in forms that were prepared previously. Patients were defined their satisfaction about employees' attitudes, explanation of patient's health status and treatment, number of times that doctors and nurses checked the patient, ease of attaining employees when needed and the level of technology and cleanliness at emergency department in according to Likert scale. Four and five points accepted as satisfied. Effects of demographic variables, social security status, method of arrival, number of admission, cause of admission, disposition, waiting times and total lenght of stay of patients at emergency department on overall satisfaction were analyzed. We used "SPSS 10,0 for Windows" and Annova and qi-square for statistical analysis. Total 341 patients were included in this study. Two hundred and nineteen patients (64,2%) were satisfied from care that received in emergency department. Effect of satisfaction from employees' attitudes, explanation of patient's health status and treatment, number of times that doctors and nurses checked the patient, ease of attaining employees when needed and the level of technology and cleanliness at emergency department on overall satisfaction were found statistically significant. în this study, we determined that properties of health care providers and hospitals were important factors which affect overall satisfaction of the population in emergency department. Especially employees' attitudes and explanation of patient's health status and treatment were most important factors that affect overall satisfaction. Key words: Emergency, Department, Patient, Satisfaction VI